Afterimages
by Mieren
Summary: Now that the war has ended, what happens when the Perfect Soldier no longer has a place to focus his violent nature? Complete!
1. Part 1

Afterimages

By Mieren

Author's note:  (I don't usually put these here, but this time I think it's necessary.)

Warning!  This is very **dark and disturbed**, even by my standards.  Contains **graphic violence**, **rape** and **death**.  This is **YAOI** (if you don't know, don't ask, just run now).  If you're not comfortable with it, don't read!  I'm not responsible for any nightmares or bouts of nausea related to reading this.  Suing me will only get you a headache.  (I'm a student.  I own nothing.)  Any and all flames will be laughed at, printed and used to wipe my butt.  So there.

*     *     *

The war was finally over.  Years passed and found the pilots living on Earth.  Quatre was busy running the Winner family business, which kept him constantly busy and with little to no spare time.  He quickly lost track of most of the other pilots with the exception of Trowa, who had moved in with him as his lover.  The other three pilots worked as Preventers with Zechs, Sally and Noin.

The moment the clock hit five, Duo was out the door and heading to his car, blatantly ignoring the stack of paperwork waiting for him tomorrow.  Every day, the stack got a little deeper and a lot scarier, but he wasn't particularly fond of paperwork and didn't intend to spend his free time after work shuffling through mind numbing reports.  Most of the office was accustomed to his early departure and ignored him, accepting the fact that an eighteen-year-old didn't need to spend every free moment in the office.  Even Zechs, workaholic that he was, openly admitted that it wasn't healthy for someone that energetic to spend every waking moment indoors slaving over a stack of paperwork.

Hard onyx eyes watched him leave, disapproving of his negligent attitude towards work.  Pushing up his reading glasses and irately pushing a loose lock of hair out of his face, Wufei stalked back to his office, just knowing that the American's early departure would somehow result in more work for him.  He passed Heero in the hall and was pleased to note the irritation on the perfect soldier's face.  When the Japanese boy returned to his apartment, he was certain to tell off his roommate for being lazy.  Wufei barely dared to hope that if Heero continued to lecture the American, he just might think about taking work seriously.

Three hours later, Wufei left the office along with a few other stragglers.  Heero stayed in his office, clearing out the excess paperwork and finishing the work on a few of the harder cases that no one else was willing to tackle alone.  He didn't even seem fazed by the complications with legal issues that came up with a few, finding a way around each before allowing himself to retire for the night.  He didn't vacate the office until a little after ten, setting the alarms around the offices and grunting hostilely at the new security guards that tried to talk to him on the way out.  The older ones carefully avoided him, fully aware of his volatile temper.

The following day, Duo was actually an hour early for work, pushing through the doors between the janitors at seven in the morning.  During the workday, no one commented on his messily braided hair or black eye.  Duo caught some of the looks thrown in his direction and mumbled something about staying out drinking and getting into a fight.  No one challenged his explanation or questioned how a trained terrorist would lose a fight, drunk or not.  After all, he came in looking like he had taken a beating at least once a week.  Following every fight, he came into work early, sometimes by up to two hours before he actually had to clock in.

He stayed late, too.

*     *     *

It was the weekend.

Knowing that Heero would be in the apartment working on his laptop, completing a few cases that he hadn't gotten around to during the week, Duo decided to stay out, not really wanting to spend too much time around the Japanese teen.  During the war, distracting the dark-haired boy had been something of a pastime.  Now, it was just taunting death.  During the war, Heero had been driven towards a single goal.  And now it was gone.  Without a focal point for his explosive nature, Heero lashed out at anyone who got in his way.  Duo was still waiting patiently, convinced that his friend would calm down in time.

A flash of red caught his eye and Duo looked up, abandoning his musings about his best friend.  From where he was lounging idly in the mall, he was attracting the attention of several young women in tight clothes.  His eyes flickered to a platinum blond in a short red dress and a grin slowly spread across his cherubic face that time had done little to mature.  Dressed in black, he looked thinner than he actually was, almost anorexic.  His only saving grace was that he had grown in the last few years, finally achieving the height that he had feared would always evade his slight frame.  Though considerably lanky for his age, he was just shy of six foot, which was taller than even Trowa was rumored to have grown.

Movement snapped him out of his thoughts a second time and he nearly kicked himself.  Thinking of his past acquaintances when several girls were openly flirting with him.  He put on a winning smile and winked at the girl in red, carefully watching her emerald eyes widen at being singled out of her friends.  Nearly bouncing on her toes, she swayed up to him quickly before he could change his mind and latched onto his arm.  He quickly introduced himself and offered to take her to a nice restaurant.  When she agreed enthusiastically, he escorted her to his car, falling back into his thoughts.

At least now he had something to do for the weekend that would keep him away from the apartment.

*     *     *

Duo nearly stumbled face first into the doorframe, barely catching himself.  In his drunken stupor, he had barely made it back to the apartment before passing out and he now wanted nothing more than to collapse on his bed.  He had been out the entire weekend with the platinum blond woman, spending most of their time at various parties and a rave.  Now, it was four o'clock Monday morning.

Finally able to get into the apartment, having had a difficult time getting his plastered mind remember how to work the key in the lock, he promptly collapsed on the floor, mindless of the fact that he had to get up in a few hours to go to work.  He glanced down the hall blearily before deciding that he couldn't make it as far as his room.  With one foot, he clumsily pushed the door shut, unable to get up to relock it.  The world rolled violently and he passed out.

*     *     *

The first thing Duo noticed while fighting out of his drunken stupor was an unaccountable headache and a distinct difficulty breathing.  After a few seconds, the pain in his head doubled, sending flashes of white light across his blurry vision.  Groaning, he forced his eyes open, immediately snapping them shut again when his dazed mind registered a fist approaching his face.  He tried to brace himself for the blow, gasping when it landed across his cheekbone.  He would have collapsed had Heero not been holding him up by his shirt.

Realizing that the quivering form in his hands was awake, Heero doubled his assault, throwing Duo up against the wall and holding him there with a series of punches to his stomach and ribs.  Knowing exactly what he had done to tick Heero off this time, Duo didn't bother to do or say anything to defend himself.  It would only make things worse.  Heero would calm down a lot faster if he just held still and remained quiet.

Several minutes passed and Heero showed no signs of slowing down.  Exhausted from lack of sleep, an impending hangover and withstanding a severe beating, Duo allowed himself to slide back into blissful unconsciousness.  Eventually Heero would stop.  There was no need for him to be awake for it.  He knew that by passing out and missing work, it would probably irritate Heero further, but he wasn't awake enough to care.  The last thing that registered in Duo's mind before blackness claimed him was the sharp echo of his skull hitting the hardwood floor.

*     *     *

The glare of the evening sun roused Duo from his stupor.  He closed his eyes tightly when his first vision was of the apartment spinning around his prone form.  For several minutes, he concentrated only on breathing around the pain in his lungs.  Slowly, his head cleared, allowing his other senses to return sluggishly.

Duo swallowed weakly around a leathery tongue, ignoring the flavor of blood in his mouth.  A quick swipe of his tongue around his mouth identified the source of the blood.  Several of his teeth were loose and there was a deep gash on the inside of his cheek where he his teeth had cut into the flesh where he was hit.  He was just thankful that Heero hadn't knocked out any of his teeth this time.  At least half of his teeth were replacements for the ones Heero had shattered.

Knowing he had to get up before Heero got home, Duo began shifting gingerly to make sure nothing was broken too badly.  He knew immediately that at least half of his ribs were broken.  One of his lungs didn't expand properly and he wondered briefly if it had collapsed again.  A few of his ribs had punctured through his skin, the blood from the wounds gluing his shirt to his chest.  His eyes flickered downward as he slowly realized that his left hand didn't move.  Frowning, Duo shifted his right hand to close over his left, jerking outwards with a sharp snap of his arm to reset his wrist.  He'd put it in a splint as soon as he got up.

Sighing weakly, Duo rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself shakily to his knees with his right hand.  He had to bandage himself up and clean the blood off of the floor before Heero got back.  Heero hated having to clean up the messes Duo created.  He really didn't want to upset him again needlessly.

As soon as Duo moved to stand, he regretted it.  The movement caused his vision to black out, the pain in his head becoming unbearable.  When the throbbing in his head lessened enough for his vision to clear, Duo was on the floor again.  He squinted in vain before deciding that his vision wouldn't clear.  He knew how to recognize a concussion.  Deciding it was unwise to stand up again and that he was probably unable to crawl one-handed, he began to drag himself to the bathroom.  There was a medical kit under the sink.

He barely made it to the bathroom in time to throw up where he wouldn't make a mess.  Spitting to clear the taste from his mouth, he flushed the toilet, trying to ignore the sheer amount of blood that had been in his stomach.  Even knowing that he didn't have too much time before Heero got back from work, Duo had to take a moment to rest.  The crawl across the small apartment had taken most of his energy.

A glance at the small clock in the bathroom revealed how late it was getting.  The breaks he had taken to rest used up more time than he had thought they would.  Knowing that it was in the best interest of his health, he decided to clean up the living area before tending to himself.  As long as the apartment was clean and he was out of the way, Heero would probably leave him alone.

Duo dragged himself to the sink and pulled out the medical kit, setting it on the counter to get it out of the way of the cleaning supplies.  It took him several minutes to gather what he needed and even longer to get back across the apartment to clean his blood off of the floor and walls.  By the time he had gotten all traces of red from the room, he was exhausted.  Only the knowledge that Heero would be home at any time gave him the strength to move himself back to the bathroom.

He had to reset his wrist a second time before splinting it.  Moving around to clean had thrown the bones out of alignment again.  Rather than splint it, which would be too difficult to do with only one working hand, he placed it in a brace intended for sprains.  He frowned at the stillness of his fingers, knowing he wouldn't regain use of that hand until the swelling in his wrist went down enough to alleviate the pinching of the nerves.  With his left arm lying motionless across his lap, he began trying to set his ribs with his right hand.  After a few minutes, he decided that his lung wasn't collapsed, just badly bruised.

An inspection of his left side showed him that only two ribs had pierced the skin.  Knowing that he couldn't place any proper stitches with only one hand functional, he settled for dabbing the area clean of blood and placing a few butterfly band-aids across the holes.  It wasn't as good as stitches, but it would have to work.

The front door opened and closed almost silently, but Duo, having been waiting for the nearly inaudible noise, flinched slightly.  Putting on a cheerful mask, he continued dabbing disinfectant on the last of his wounds before covering them.  He was nearly done when the door to the bathroom was opened.  A strong hand wrapped around his throat and lifted him into the air.  Duo hung limply, trying his best to grin.

"Hi, Heero!" he rasped, barely able to form words past his abused throat.  Heero didn't set him down, so he continued.  "You just caught me.  I was about to go to bed and all.  Have to get to bed early so I can get to work a bit earlier than usual.  I need to get some overtime in this week to catch up on everything.  Maybe if I get far enough ahead, Wu-chan will have a heart attack.  The look on his face would be priceless, don't you think?"

Even though his carefree chatter caused him extreme pain, he continued until he achieved the desired result.  Heero grunted in reply and dropped him.  He had gotten his point across to the silent pilot.  He planned on covering the work he had missed by lying unconscious on the floor all day and was going to behave for at least the remainder of the week.

Duo fought back the urge to groan, knowing Heero would hear him.  It wasn't safe to sleep with a concussion and he was well aware of the fact, but now that he had told Heero he was going to bed, he didn't have a choice.  He would have liked something to eat, but he really didn't want to face Heero again just yet.  He quickly drank a few glasses of water to ease the pain in his stomach and swore to himself that he would eat a large breakfast.

Still unsteady, Duo managed to push himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the bathroom wall.  The world spun wildly around him, but he refused to relinquish his tentative stance simply because his equilibrium demanded he do so.  He didn't want to be seen crawling.

Sighing silently, he began to work his way to his room, sagging pathetically against the wall with every unsteady step he took.  After what seemed like an eternity, he was in his room.  He barely remembered to set his alarm clock before collapsing on his bed, exhausted by his short walk.  Sleep claimed him immediately.

*     *     *

Work was pure hell.  Still stiff from his injuries and dizzy from a concussion, possibly a severe one for all he knew, Duo was having trouble focusing on what he was doing.  Words blurred and twisted on the pages in front of him, evading his slightly glazed eyes and making it almost impossible to get anything done.  Despite his best efforts, he was getting nowhere.

Even worse, his injuries were attracting a lot of unwanted attention.  The bruising on his face and neck were worse this time than anyone at work had witnessed before and several of his coworkers were staring.  He might have been able to deter them if he hadn't been moving so gingerly in a desperate effort not to jar his ribs again.  The bones ground on each other, making it difficult to keep the pain from his eyes and voice.

He hadn't been at work for more than a few hours before Zechs managed to corner him in his office, closing the door behind them.  For several seconds, the blond remained silent before his lips pulled downward in a small frown.

"Why are you here?" he asked simply.

"I work here," Duo smirked, eyes glinting with a forced air of mischief.  "Or at least that's what I've told the payroll monkeys."

"You know what I mean," Zechs sighed.  "You're hurt."

"Hey!" Duo protested, plastering on a wide grin.  "What kind of a weakling do you take me for anyways?  The great Shinigami can't be crippled by a little scuffle!  Besides, I missed yesterday already and I'm not some sort of deadbeat refusing to pull my own weight, you know!  If I fall any further behind, the little vein that throbs in Wufei's forehead when he gets ticked, which is just all the time, might just explode.  Think of the mess that would make.  The pressure behind that thing would blow out all of the windows on this floor, if not the entire building.  I'm not cleaning that up!"

As always, Zechs simply waited out Duo's rambling.  When the braided pilot finally finished, probably having run out of breath, he arched one eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed by the inane chatter.

"Go home, Maxwell," he ordered.  "And stay there.  I don't want you back at work today, or tomorrow for that matter.  Either go home or go to a doctor."  Seeing the defiance in the violet eyes, he continued, oblivious to the stark fear that was so carefully hidden behind the indignant glare.  "That's an order, Maxwell.  Do it or I'll fire you."

Duo visibly flinched at the threat before nodding and rapidly gathering his things and scrambling out of the building.  He didn't even want to think about what Heero would do if he lost his job.  The mere fact that he had been sent home instead in lieu working overtime worried him.  He hadn't been careful enough.  Tears stung the corners of his eyes as he scrambled into his car.  He hadn't recovered from his last encounter yet and any additional injuries would likely be serious ones.

Not even thinking of the consequences of what would happen if something didn't go right, Duo sprinted into the apartment.  His fingers flew over numbers on the phone, tapping out a number that he had looked up long ago but had never had the nerve to call.  The video screen on the wall flickered to life and Trowa's stoic image appeared.  Having expected Quatre, Duo faltered slightly before he started talking rapidly.

"I'm glad you're there," he said quickly.  Before he could say anything else, Trowa cut him off.

"What is this about, Duo?  I've told you years ago never to call us."

"But…"

"No.  Whatever it is you want, bother someone else.  Quatre's been hurt too many times by your behavior in the past and I'm not going to let you upset him again."

"You should know me better than that!" Duo protested.  "I may have teased you two about being together, but that's all it was.  Teasing!  I like to do that.  You remember all the pranks I pulled on Wufei and Heero.  It's just my nature to joke around.  I don't mean anything by it.  I swear I don't have a problem with the two of you being gay!  Hell, you two could go at it with me in the room and I wouldn't even care.  You could even use me for a pillow!  Well, maybe not that, but you know what I mean.  How immature do you think I am?"

Trowa paused, emerald eyes glinting angrily as he considered the rapid explanation and veiled apology within Duo's rambling.  When he remained silent for nearly a minute, Duo decided to continue with his desperate plea.

"I just need a place to stay for a few days."

Emerald eyes flashed with suspicion.  "Stay in your apartment."

"I can't!  Heero's ticked.  He's going to hurt me, Trowa.  Please.  I just need somewhere to hide until he calms down a little."

Seconds ticked by as Trowa's expression grew darker.  Finally, the silent brunette spoke into the deadly silence.

"You've only confirmed that you haven't matured enough to be trustworthy.  If you've done something bad enough to rile Heero, you're on your own.  I won't have you upsetting Quatre again.  Goodbye."

The image on the screen went blank as Trowa abruptly severed the connection.  Tears slipped from Duo's eyes.  He couldn't ask anyone at work for fear that Heero would be able to find him immediately and he didn't have anyone else to turn to.  Trembling slightly, he decided to gather a few changes of clothes so he could leave.  He'd hide in his car for a few days out in the middle of nowhere.  Heero would be able to find him at a hotel.

The moment he turned around, he found himself staring into cold Prussian blue eyes.  Duo's blood ran cold.  Heero had heard.

Duo held perfectly still, waiting for the inevitable.  With everything that he had done wrong recently, he knew that he was going to be beaten unconscious again.  Not only had he missed work yesterday, but he had been sent home today, missing both today's work and overtime.  He wasn't sure how it had happened, but Heero wasn't at work either.  He suspected that Zechs had sent Heero home as well in order to watch over him.  Either that or Heero had followed him to make sure he didn't try what he had just been caught doing.  No matter how he looked at it, Heero was missing work because of him.  Duo didn't have to be told to know that talking to anyone about how he was constantly injured would endanger Heero's job as a Preventer.  That alone was inexcusable.

The first blow landed in Duo's ribs, knocking him to the floor and stealing his breath.  He gasped weakly, trying futilely to draw air into his tortured lungs.  A foot connected with his side, the force behind it enough to lift him off of the ground as he flew five feet before landing on the hardwood floor, skidding another three feet before hitting a wall.

The blood both on the floor and flooding his mouth informed Duo that he was hurt seriously.  His broken ribs had been thrown out of alignment and several were through his left lung.  Blood ran freely from his mouth with every labored breath.

Trying to save his ribs from another kick, Duo swung his arm back to protect his already mangled side.  Bones snapped in the impact, misaligning his already broken wrist and breaking his forearm.  Even knowing that his arm would be broken beyond use if he continued to hold it in the way, he stubbornly kept his arm folded over his ribs.

He wasn't kicked again.  Heero pulled him to his feet by his braid and pushed him into the blood-splattered wall.  Punches rained across his stomach and chest for several minutes before a single blow to the side of Duo's jaw sent him spiraling into darkness.

To Be Continued…

Originally, this was going to be posted as one story.  But I decided to post it in sections so I could get it out now.  More than this is done.  The number of reviews I get will determine how soon I post the next section.  Aren't I evil?  R&R!


	2. Part 2

Afterimages

Part 2

By Mieren

Author's note:  (I don't usually put these here, but this time I think it's necessary.)

Warning!  This is very **dark and disturbed**, even by my standards.  Contains **graphic violence**, **rape** and **death**.  This is **YAOI** (if you don't know, don't ask, just run now).  If you're not comfortable with it, don't read!  I'm not responsible for any nightmares or bouts of nausea related to reading this.  Suing me will only get you a headache.  (I'm a student.  I own nothing.)  Any and all flames will be laughed at, printed and used to wipe my butt.  So there.

*     *     *

Blood had dried across Duo's face, gluing his eyelids firmly shut.  Only his stubborn efforts allowed him to force his bleary eyes open.  Duo groaned immediately, closing his eyes again when the fierce light and the spinning room met his disoriented gaze.  He waited numbly for the nausea to pass before trying again, this time refusing to close his eyes against the bucking room.  He allowed his eyes to roam, wondering blearily what day it was.

It had been fairly early on Tuesday when he had been sent home by Zechs and knocked senseless by Heero.  There was no way to tell what time it was now without moving.  He suspected that it was Wednesday, but without moving, he couldn't be sure.  Knowing that he couldn't stay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, Duo decided to begin the well-practiced routine.

Duo allowed his eyes to slide almost shut to block out the light as he cautiously inventoried his numerous injuries.  The first thing to register in his spinning mind was his concussion.  The newest blow to his skull had aggravated the prior injury and he didn't need to check to know that it was serious now.  If he received another blow to the head anytime in the near future, it would be his last.

Pushing the morbid thought from his mind, Duo continued with his dazed observations.  His eyebrows drew down in a frustrated scowl when he realized that his left lung had finally collapsed.  He knew that he probably needed to go to a hospital but also knew that doing so would probably upset Heero again.  Sighing weakly with his one working lung, he decided that he could drain the blood from his lung by himself.  It wouldn't be the first time he had done it.  As long as the blood was surrounding his lung and not inside it, it would be simple enough.

Expression grim, he began surveying the rest of his wounds.  Remembering the blow to his jaw, he gingerly ran his tongue around his mouth, spitting two stray teeth that had been knocked loose onto the floor.  There were replacements already waiting at the dentist's office.  He had an entire set of teeth waiting for him at all points in time just in case they were needed.  He'd talk to the surgeon again on the weekend.

Knowing that he had to clean up, Duo started to swivel his arms forward to push himself to a kneeling position.  His right arm moved around immediately, but his left only shifted sluggishly.  Once it was within his peripheral vision, Duo stared at it emptily, his mind foggily recognizing that it had an extra angle to it in the middle of his forearm.  His eyes flickered towards his wrist and he sighed again when he saw his palm lying almost flat against his forearm.  Duo pressed his eyes shut and sucked a breath through his blood-coated throat.  He hated setting bones.

Remembering his attempts to move on Monday with a concussion, Duo wisely didn't try to lift himself off of the floor, opting to use his right arm to drag himself sluggishly across the floor, inch by inch, to the bathroom.  Once inside the tiny room, his eyes shifted automatically towards the clock to see how much time he had before Heero returned.  It was only noon.  Whether it was Wednesday or Thursday he didn't know.  As long as he had time to clean himself and the apartment up before Heero returned, he didn't care.  Judging by the fact that blood was still streaked across the floors and walls, he assumed it was still Wednesday, though.  Heero wouldn't leave such a mess across his apartment.

Gritting his teeth, Duo wrapped his right hand around his left and pulled outward with all of his strength, letting out small choked sounds as the bones in his forearm and wrist fell back into alignment.  That done, he clumsily splinted his arm and let it lie lax at his side while he fumbled to set his ribs into a vague semblance of their proper positions.  Panting heavily in pain, he pulled out a thick needle from the medical kit and ran his fingers across the poorly set bones, counting to himself as his fingers swept lower.  Reaching the proper number, he slipped the needle between the two ribs to drain the blood from his lung.  He began gasping fitfully as the pressure abated, returning the use of his left lung.

Duo prayed that his lung wouldn't fill with blood a second time.  He knew he couldn't stay on the floor forever.  He had to get up.  Heero would return in a few hours and he had to finish cleaning both himself and the apartment up before the Japanese boy returned.  Clenching his teeth with the knowledge of imminent agony, Duo slowly levered himself off of the floor, his breath hissing through clenched teeth as he struggled to maintain consciousness.  Seconds passed by sluggishly while he forced himself to maintain his balance long enough to relieve himself.  He knew that it was better to strain himself now than to make a mess.  He would be punished if he made a mess.

He immediately collapsed once he was finished, unable to support his own weight any longer.  Hissing in pain, he rolled onto his stomach, glancing around the bathroom before realizing that he didn't have the strength to return to his own room.  Heero would be angry if he didn't return to his own room.

A hysterical giggle escaped his lips as he quivered against the tile floor.  He was still bleeding.  He was still making a mess on the bathroom floor.  Even knowing that he would be unable to clean the mess he was making, he couldn't muster the effort to stop himself from bleeding.  He knew better, right?  Barely conscious, Duo groped blindly at the cleaning supplies beneath the sink.  The moment his hand closed on something solid, he made an unsuccessful attempt to move himself to clean the mess he had foolishly made.  A sound that was somewhere between a frantic giggle and a gasp of fear escaped his mouth when he realized that he couldn't regain his feet.  In a moment of idiocy, he had allowed himself to splatter blood across the apartment.  He was unable to clean the mess he had made.  Heero would be angry.

Still chuckling at his own stupidity, Duo swiped his one working arm at the nearest swath of blood across the floor, vainly attempting to clean the mess he had made.  At his reckless attempt to move, consciousness fled and he returned to the world of darkness.

*     *     *

Consciousness returned like a slap to the face.  Opening his eyes, Duo corrected his original thought.  Consciousness had returned like a boot to the ribs, knocking him out of the way so that his back was pressed to the wall.  He groaned feebly and held very still, no longer having the strength to move or defend himself.

Fury was almost tangible in the silence.  Duo could sense enraged cobalt eyes drilling into his back.  Several minutes passed before either boy moved.  Finally, Heero wrapped his hand in the front of Duo's shirt, hefting him into the bathtub and turning on the shower.  Snagging a few cleaning supplies, he stalked out of the bathroom, leaving Duo lying motionless under a stream of ice cold water.

For his part, Duo shivered miserably.  He was too disoriented from his concussion to sit up to adjust the water temperature and too weak from blood loss to pull himself out of the tub.  Trembling violently, he could only watch as bloody water streamed from his clothes and his visible skin slowly turned blue.  He quickly lost the strength to shiver and grew still, his eyes fixed and unseeing.

Suddenly, mercifully, the water was turned off.  Duo winced when several towels were dropped carelessly on his chest, the slight weight jarring his sensitive ribs.  The pain shattered past the numbing chill that had settled into his skin, forcing him into awareness.  By the time he forced his blurry eyes to open, Heero was gone.

Knowing he would be unable to get out of the tub, Duo settled on using one of the towels to clumsily dab himself off with his one working arm.  He tried to ignore his still wet clothes.  Wadding up the sopped towel, he stuck it behind his head, attempting to shield his ginger skull from the hard porcelain tub.  He used the other two towels to cover himself with, hoping to keep in a little warmth.

Pain and blood loss took their toll.  Within moments, Duo returned to blackness.

*     *     *

It was nothing short of a miracle that allowed Duo to regain consciousness the next morning.  By all rights, his concussion should have killed him or rendered him comatose at the very least.  As it was, he was shocked that hypothermia hadn't claimed him during the night.

Realizing that he was still alive, Duo moaned pitifully, wondering what new injuries Heero would inflict on him today.  He didn't dare go to work in the state he was in, as Zechs would send him home immediately, but he didn't dare attempt to convince Heero that he should stay home either.

"Damned if you do.  Damned if you don't," Duo muttered to himself.  He made his decision.

Grunting with the effort, Duo used his right arm to lever himself gingerly out of the bathtub and onto the tile floor.  He landed awkwardly on his side, grinding his teeth to keep from crying out in pain.  Using every swear word he knew, and making up a few as he went, he managed to regain his feet largely by virtue of hanging off the sink.

Still poorly coordinated, he turned on the tap, using the tepid water to rinse the blood from his swollen, discolored face.  He glanced into the mirror to make sure he had gotten rid of all of the crimson streaks, wincing when he saw his reflection.  It looked as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to his face.

_Close enough,_ he thought drearily.  He sighed forlornly.  _How am I going to hide this?  Wufei won't care and no one in the office will bother me for the most part, but Zechs isn't going to overlook this. But I can't stay here, either.  Damn.  I don't have a choice, I guess._

Resuming his litany of curses, he stripped out of his sodden clothes and began the tedious process of cleaning his wounds.  As he worked, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge how many scars he had incurred in the months he had shared an apartment with Heero.  Many of the scars had vanished behind bruises from the last few days, hiding their true numbers.

Duo quickly splinted his left arm and bound his shattered ribs, knowing that Heero would wake up fairly soon.  He hissed in pain as he once again drained the blood from his left lung.  Chuckling grimly, he wondered how much more blood he could lose and still remain consciousness.  Probably not much more.  He was already very dizzy.

Still watching the small bathroom clock closely, he used the restroom for the first time since he had lost consciousness the previous day.  He had just finished when he heard movement within the apartment.  Heero was awake.  In a few moments, he had to look presentable or risk getting beaten again.  Flinching at the thought, he tentatively grasped a small washcloth in his good hand and soaked it in warm water, gently wiping himself down to remove the last traces of blood from his battered form.  He turned sluggishly to face the form he knew was standing in the doorway, not slowing his efforts.

"Just getting ready for work," he said lightly to the scowling figure watching him.  "I'll be done in a minute and you can have the bathroom."

Heero grunted and folded his arms across his chest, a clear sign that he was getting impatient.  Trying not to look worried, Duo finished washing himself off and snagged his clothes and the bloody towels that he had used the previous night.  It was difficult to walk balancing a large load of laundry in his one working arm, depriving him of the ability to lean on the walls, but he didn't dare complain.  Heero silently moved out of his way as he shuffled weakly into the hall and towards the small washer they had in a small room near the kitchen.

Rid of his armload, Duo gratefully leaned on the walls as he hobbled back to his room to find something to wear.  Having missed as much work as he had, Heero would expect him to leave earlier than normal, so he didn't have too much time.  Even worse, he wasn't up to driving.  He wasn't looking forward to telling Heero that he needed a ride to work.  Arriving in his room, he pulled on the first clean set of clothes he saw, grateful that the shirt had sleeves long and baggy enough to hide his splint.  The more he could keep out of sight, the better.

Glancing at his reflection one last time before leaving the room, he winced, realizing he had forgotten something important.  He had to braid his hair.  Letting out a weak breath, he brushed his damp hair and fumbled to put it into a ponytail with one hand.  He glanced at his crude work and grumbled to himself.  This wasn't the first time he had had difficulty working with his hair due to an arm injury, but he usually managed to get it into at least a messy braid.  He hoped this wouldn't draw attention he didn't need.

Once finished, he moved slowly towards the kitchen.  Even though he was too nauseous to keep anything down, he knew he was dehydrated.  Fearing that anything he drank would make him ill, he settled on a few glasses of water.  He knew it had no nutritional value but didn't relish the idea of getting sick again.

Hearing a noise behind him, Duo turned as quickly as he was able to acknowledge Heero in the doorway to the kitchen.  The Japanese teen appeared ready to leave.  Duo attempted a grin, but the corners of his mouth only raised enough to form a weak grimace.

"I'm ready to leave whenever you are," he said, inwardly cursing the raspy quality to his voice.  When Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously, he quickly elaborated.  "I don't think I should be driving just yet.  I might… get in a wreck."

Having delivered the news, he held perfectly still, waiting for Heero's reaction.  He was surprised when Heero simply grunted and left the kitchen.  Duo nearly laughed in relief and joy.  His patience was paying off.  In his own withdrawn way, Heero had helped him clean up last night and now he was going to get a ride to work.  His war-crazed friend was calming down.

Duo's mind wandered from his injuries and the abuse he had endured for several months now.  His best friend was recovering from his harsh training.  Heero was finally achieving the peace of mind they all deserved after fighting for so long.  A small smile worked its way onto his bruised and swollen face.

*     *     *

Duo didn't realize how badly he was injured until he tried to climb the stairs to get to his office.  Every movement sent fiery pain along his muscles, searing his abused nerves.  Ignoring his agony, he trudged his way to his office, ignoring the strange looks his mangled appearance and shuffling steps were drawing from his coworkers.  Wufei said something to him, but he wasn't listening, too intent on getting to his office before he passed out.

Reaching his office without incident, Duo slumped against the wall, already exhausted.  The small room seemed to spin around him and he swayed unsteadily.  Cursing silently, he stumbled to his desk, looking forward to sitting down.

Despite the pain he was in, Duo didn't regret coming to work.  Heero was happy and would remain so as long as he remained hidden from Zechs.  A pained smile etched itself on Duo's face.  All he had to do was hide in his office for the day.  No one would know that he was hurt.  No one would know he wasn't working.  The paperwork could wait.  He was safe.

Finally able to relax, the injuries took their toll on both Duo's mind and body.  He slid from his chair to the floor, unconscious.

*     *     *

Wufei scowled, furious.  He had asked Duo a question twice as the braided teen shuffled across the room, but both times the brunette had failed to answer.  Ready to chew him out for his irresponsible behavior, he stormed after the American.  He hadn't taken more than three steps before he stopped cold.

A dark liquid trail followed the path Duo had taken, smeared from his shoes and dripping from his clothes.  Automatically, Wufei bent down to trail his fingers through the thick fluid, eyes widening slightly when his senses confirmed what his mind had refused to believe.  It was blood.  He blinked in shock, desperately trying to calculate how severely the slender brunette was injured to be bleeding so badly.  His mind came to an immediate conclusion.  Duo was bleeding to death.

Lurching upright, he moved as quickly as he could across the building without running.  He didn't want to attract attention if he was wrong or if this was one of the American's stupid pranks.  He seriously doubted the possibility.  Not even Duo would do something like that.  Guilt plagued him for being angry only moments ago.  Abandoning dignity, he sprinted through the winding halls to where Duo's office was hidden, shoving the door open without knocking.

For a moment, he thought that the braided boy wasn't in his office.  That thought vanished when he noticed the blood on the floor and desk.  He didn't hesitate before running around the desk.  All thought and reason abandoned him when he saw Duo's limp form on the floor, blood slowly pooling around him.  He hesitantly placed one hand on his comrade's pale cheek, wincing when it was cold to the touch.

"Duo?" he asked softly.  Getting no response, he repeated himself, placing one hand on the black clad form to shake him gently.

He jerked his hand back as though burnt.  The ribs under his fingers had yielded with no pressure at all.  The handprint he had left in his friend's side did not rise.  Wufei stared at his blood-covered hand, nearly going into shock.

_How could he have moved?_ Wufei thought, still staring at his crimsoned hand in horror.  _Nataku.  He's dying._

Shaking violently, he fumbled for his cell phone, swearing luridly when the number he dialed was busy.  Fuming in rage, he sprinted from the room, intent on retrieving Sally before the unconscious American bled to death.

In a matter of minutes, he had traversed the length of the building, running up several flights of stairs in his haste.  He couldn't take the time to use the elevator.  Reaching the clinic, he didn't give Sally a chance to respond, opting to drag her physically from the room, several bags of medical supplies he had pilfered from her office hanging from his other arm.

Sally didn't say a word as he towed her across the building at frantic speeds, explaining hastily as he pulled her behind him.  She would have run on her own, but she was no match for the speed of a Gundam pilot.  Being dragged was actually faster, so she had no objections, especially once she understood what had him so upset.

By the time the two reached the office only minutes after Wufei had left, Duo was gone without a trace.  A building wide search ensued immediately for the injured teen.  It took them nearly an hour to realize that Heero was gone as well.

*     *     *

Duo slipped in and out of consciousness.  Flashes of the office and the road met his blurred gaze, nothing making sense to him.  He saw another glimpse of the road.  Then the dashboard of Heero's car.  Blackness.  His eyes flickered open miserably to see Heero's visage as he was lifted out of the car.

A weak grin flitted across Duo's face.  Heero was helping him.  He choked on a cry of relief.  His patience had finally paid off.  His best friend had finally calmed from the madness of war.  Even though it was painful to move, he reached up with one hand to place his fingers on Heero's cheek, leaving streaks of blood where his fingers brushed the skin.  The effort was short lived, his arm falling limp almost immediately.

Ignoring the effort it took, he struggled to remain awake while he was carried into their apartment.  The door slid shut behind them with an ominous click.

Pain enveloped Duo.  It took him several seconds to realize that he was being suspended by his neck while punches were being delivered to his abused ribs and abdomen.  Blood splattered across the floor with each blow, the crimson streaking testament to the damage being inflicted.

At that moment, Duo realized two things.  The first was that nothing had changed.  Heero was still the violent soldier he had always been.  The second was that he had made a deadly mistake.  He had let the office know how badly he was injured.

Silently, Duo waited out the beating, slipping in and out of consciousness as his mind continued to lose the ability to handle the pain in sporadic intervals.  After an indeterminate length of time, the pain stopped.  He gasped miserably around his ruined lungs, unable to even summon the strength to flinch in pain when he was thrown to the floor.  It was over.  Heero would leave and he'd be left to recuperate and clean up the mess.

Movement caught the attention of his hazy mind and he forced his blackened eyes to focus on the image in front of him.  Heero was kneeling in front of him, an unreadable expression on his face.  Deft hands reached out, pulling off the blood-sopped clothing hanging from Duo's too thin frame.

Realization struck.  Icy tendrils worked down Duo's back when he understood the full extent of what was happening.  He suddenly found the strength to fight back, lurching pathetically from where he was sprawled on the hardwood floor.  When he was pinned easily, he did the first thing that came naturally from his childhood on the streets of L2.  He screamed.

Heero's hand clamped around his face, raising his head a few inches from the floor before slamming it downwards to meet the hardwood floor with a sickening crunch.  Light flashed through Duo's vision, followed by the purest darkness.  Consciousness fled as his body began to jerk to the rhythm of the form above him.

To Be Continued…

Damn, am I mean.  Anyways, review if you want more.  I have it done already.  The sooner you want it out, the more you'll review.  Aren't I evil?  R&R!  ^_^

Since ff.net saw fit to take down ALL of my stories under the other area I was posting, I'm starting up again under this name.  I LOST MY REVIEWS!!!  ;_;  Please, review!  I'll beg and turn Quatre's puppy dog eyes on you!  Review!


	3. Part 3

Afterimages

Part 3

By Mieren

Author's note: (I don't usually put these here, but this time I think it's necessary.)

Warning! This is very **dark and disturbed**, even by my standards. Contains **graphic violence**, **rape** and **death**. This is **YAOI** (if you don't know, don't ask, just run now). If you're not comfortable with it, don't read! I'm not responsible for any nightmares or bouts of nausea related to reading this. Suing me will only get you a headache. (I'm a student. I own nothing.) Any and all flames will be laughed at, printed and used to wipe my butt. So there.

Wufei fidgeted, looking out the helicopter's window. He had dragged Sally and several other doctors with him to the landing pad the moment he realized that Heero was no longer in the office. His instincts had told him where the two missing pilots were, and that knowledge worried him. He had wasted no time in hotwiring one of the Preventer helicopters and sending it screaming towards the apartment his friends shared. Friend, he corrected himself. If what he suspected was true, one of his former colleagues had officially made his hit list.

He glanced out the window again, face grim. No matter how his mind told him that he could cover the distance four times faster than Heero could in his car, he was worried. That still left Heero at the apartment fifteen minutes ahead of him. Assuming, of course, that the stoic pilot had returned there.

When he didn't immediately see a landing spot, he set the helicopter down on one of the cars in the lot, completely crushing the vehicle. He was out of the helicopter and running towards the room while the doctors were still trying to right themselves after having been thrown around by the rough landing. Wufei's mind kept screaming at him that he needed to hurry, and he wasn't about to go against his instincts.

Nearing the proper door, he leapt into the air, crashing into the wood with his foot leading. The heavy wooden door splintered inwards, giving the Chinese pilot a clear view of the living room. Wufei felt his blood run cold.

Duo lay motionless in a pool of his own blood, his limbs hanging at strange angles, his throat and chest crushed and discolored. He was stripped from his normal black clothes, Heero looming above him, obviously halting his actions from the interruption of Wufei kicking in the door.

Feeling helpless, Wufei couldn't stop his gaze from flickering over the American. Every inch of his skin was either covered in blood, discolored from bone deep bruises, or far too pale. His violet eyes, normally so guileless and carefree, were rolled back in his head, staring blankly at the far wall. Pain lanced through Wufei's heart when he realized that the braided pilot wasn't breathing.

Movement drew him from his shock. Heero had lurched for his gun, which was strapped to the belt he had discarded. Wufei's gun was closer, still on his hip, but Heero was inhumanly fast. The twinned crack of dual gunfire was heard, echoing strangely loud in the room. For several seconds, the two Asiatic pilots stared at each other, cobalt eyes boring into black. Time stood still while the two impassive pilots glared death.

Finally, Wufei broke the silence, grunting as he staggered to the side, gun slipping from numbed fingers to clatter to the floor. His left hand rose jerkily to press against his right shoulder, staunching the violent flow of blood. He raised his ebony gaze to the Japanese pilot, waiting for the second shot to come.

To his surprise, the gun slipped from Heero's grasp, landing heavily on the floor. Wufei smirked, realizing that his own shot hadn't missed. Both of the pilots were crack shots, but the Chinese pilot had had an instant's more time. Blood trickled down Heero's face, testimony to the raven-haired pilot's true aim.

Life fled from the Persian eyes. Heero slumped to the side, wavering unsteadily. No matter what his training, his body finally gave out. He collapsed to the floor, dead. Unwilling to take chances, Wufei snagged his gun off the floor and put three more bullets through the Japanese pilot's skull, tears streaming down his tanned face.

The entire exchange had only taken a few seconds. In that time, Sally and her colleagues had caught up with the Chinese pilot. They found him on his knees, head down and arms folded tightly as he fought to keep from sobbing. His stubborn willpower overtook him the moment they entered the door. Still not raising his eyes, he pointed towards Duo's limp form, silently commanding them to help the American pilot instead of him.

Sally rested her hand against his good shoulder for a mere instant before rushing to do as she was told.

Wufei remained motionless for over a minute, not daring to breathe. Cold rationale overtook him, forcing him to regain his feet and move out the broken door. Until told otherwise, he would believe that the braided pilot was alive. With that assumption, he knew that the helicopter needed to be started up again. Duo needed to be taken to a hospital and Wufei would not be the one to deny him that.

Trying to steady his nerves, Wufei started up the engines, watching silently as the doctors boarded the helicopter with Duo's limp form carried between them. He lifted off immediately, pushing the engines to the fullest extent as he raced for the nearest hospital.

Duo had been in surgery for over thirty hours.

In the waiting room, three pilots waited in silence for some notice from the doctors. Quatre varied from fidgeting to pacing to harassing the nurses on the state of his friend. On occasion, he tried to cuddle up next to Trowa for comfort, but the expressionless pilot didn't respond, seeming more interested in staring at his hands where they were curled in his lap. He refused to meet anyone's gaze.

Wufei sat a little ways away from everyone else, his arms wrapped tightly around his chest as he stared into space, covered from head to foot in blood. Most of it was Duo's. After landing the helicopter, he had personally carried Duo into the emergency room, not waiting for the slower doctors that were still scrambling out of the craft. He barely allowed a resident to wrap the bullet wound in his shoulder, insisting that he didn't need medical treatment. Despite numerous efforts on the part of both Quatre and several of the nurses, he refused to leave to clean himself up, replying endlessly to the entreaties that he would not leave until he knew.

Zechs and Noin stayed in the waiting room with the pilots for a few minutes after being informed on what had happened. After that, they had been forced to vacate to keep the press at bay. Somehow, it had leaked that one Preventer had brutally beaten another to the brink of death and that he had been killed by a vengeful colleague. Despite the irritation of being the only two people to fight the vultures with their cameras, they found that it was better than thinking about what had happened. And anything was better than letting the press near the three waiting pilots. Zechs suspected that in the mood Wufei was in, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot one of the nosy reporters.

When the platinum blond saw Sally coming, he pulled a gun on the reporters and threatened to shoot them if they didn't get out of the building immediately. Not surprisingly, they ignored him, believing the threat to be an empty one. Growling, he loosed four shots, clipping a few shoulders. Though the bullets only grazed the shocked reporters, the sight of blood seemed to get through to them and they left quickly.

Sally gave him a weary look, not bothering to comment on his methods. The two Preventers followed her into the room, the three pilots within meeting her almost before she could fully enter the room. She motioned them to sit, refusing to speak until all five had done so.

She had to pause to steel her nerves, worried about how the pilots would take the news. Zechs and Noin, she wasn't as worried about. They hadn't been Duo's best friends.

"Duo's alive," she said simply. The tension in the room visibly faded with her words, but not completely. They could tell from her expression that something was still wrong. She paused for another few seconds, desperately trying to think of a way to say what she needed to. Trowa prompted her when the others seemed unable to speak.

"What aren't you telling us?" he asked. Sally glanced at him, surprised by the guilt in his voice.

"He was clinically dead when we found him," she said softly. "To be honest, I never thought we would be able to revive him. His injuries are like nothing I've ever seen… I could keep the list going for over an hour. All of his ribs were shattered, a lot of them were piercing his lungs and one was through his heart. His right shoulder was dislocated. His right arm was broken in four places and his left in eighteen. Both of his hips were dislocated. His legs were broken in more than a dozen places." She paused, clenching her teeth as she fought with herself to get out the last part of it. "And the back of his skull was shattered."

"He'll recover, though, won't he?" Quatre asked, looking up with teary eyes. When she hesitated, Zechs looked up, face stricken.

"Sally?"

"No," Sally whispered. It nearly broke her heart when she saw that Quatre was openly crying. The stricken look on Wufei's face didn't help. "Not entirely. The blow to his head shattered his skull. There was considerable cerebral hemorrhaging. Several bone fragments had to be removed from the occipital lobes. There was no way to repair the damage." She stopped again. Before continuing, she closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the looks on the other pilots' faces. "If he comes out of the coma he's currently in, he'll be blind."

Somehow, not seeing anything was worse than she had imagined. Opening her eyes, she glanced at the other five people in the room, instantly regretting it. Zechs and Noin both had a broken look that tore at her heart. Quatre was openly weeping. Trowa had curled in on himself, the guilt-ridden look on his face growing worse by the second. Even Wufei, who she had suspected had hated the American pilot, was staring at the floor, unbidden tears escaping his ebony eyes.

"Go home," she said softly. "I'll call you if… when he regains consciousness. I don't expect him to for several weeks, at the very least."

Wufei was the first to leave the room. When the others finally got over their shock to follow him, they found a trail of unconscious and battered reporters in his wake.

Three months passed. Although Duo's injuries slowly healed, he showed no signs of waking. His hair, which the surgeons had been forced to cut off prior to the hasty brain surgery, was beginning to grow to a length where he would once again be able to catch it in a ponytail. The other pilots and numerous coworkers stopped to see him, but no one stayed long, uncomfortable with the sight of the pale teen on life support.

One of the machines began to beep persistently, drawing the attention of the hospital staff. Sally ran into the small room immediately, glancing at the equipment before hastily leaving. She grabbed the first phone she could find, dialing a number rapidly.

"He's waking up."

Once again, the Preventers found themselves missing a helicopter as Wufei decided it was the most expedient way to reach the hospital. He wasn't surprised to see a second helicopter setting down recklessly on a nearby landing pad, the blond pilot launching himself out of the craft almost before it was fully on the ground. A tall, lanky brunette jumped out right behind him. Wufei was only a few steps behind them.

Only a few minutes had passed since Sally's call. The three pilots arrived in the small room to find Duo very groggy and only partially awake. Several groans and curses were heard as the bedridden pilot tried to push himself to a sitting position. Most of his muscles had atrophied from lack of use. The effort of using his withered muscles for such a menial movement left him momentarily winded, his lungs weakened from his injuries.

Quatre moved forward hopefully. He placed one hand on Duo's arm tentatively.

"Duo?"

At the gentle touch, Duo recoiled violently. He wrenched his arm away from the blond and lurched in the opposite direction, almost throwing himself off the other side of the narrow hospital bed. Wide violet eyes flickered aimlessly across the room, blindly seeking for the source of the voice. Quatre stepped back, desolate, tears streaming from his aquamarine eyes when he saw that Duo was shivering in fear, close to hyperventilating.

Unsure of what to do, Quatre moved away. After a few minutes, Duo calmed a little, though his eyes still flickered uselessly across the room. A slight shift in position drew his attention to his cropped hair hanging loosely around his jaw. Immediately, his hands moved to examine his braid. His left arm stopped well short of reaching the back of his neck, the decimated muscles hindering his movement, the shattered bones in his arm having destroyed the surrounding tissues. Undaunted, he wrapped his right hand around the loose ends, brow furrowing at the shortened length. He abandoned his hair only moments later in favor of inspecting his left arm, obviously trying to reason out why it no longer moved correctly.

Throughout the self-examination, Wufei remained silent and still, watching. Eventually, Duo's hands moved towards his eyes, fingers brushing against the open lids before experimentally moving a few inches in front of his sightless violet eyes. Unable to watch any longer, Wufei spoke up.

"Maxwell…"

Anything further he might have said died in his throat when Duo flattened himself against the headboard of the tiny bed, trying to move away from the source of the noise. His eyes were locked in Wufei's direction. The violet orbs slowly flickered to either side of the Chinese pilot, futilely trying to pinpoint the source of the voice. Unable to see who was in the room, he spoke tentatively.

"Heero?" he asked. Wufei scowled, furious that the first words from the violet-eyed teen had been an inquiry about his attacker.

"He's not here," Wufei answered stiffly. His anger immediately deflated when Duo visibly relaxed. He silently reprimanded himself for being upset with the terrified brunette. The American had only been trying to calm his nerves.

"Trowa?" Duo asked, still shivering against the headboard.

"I'm here," Trowa responded quickly.

The transformation was immediate. Duo's expression shifted from terror to pure rage. Before anyone could react, he launched himself out of bed towards the European pilot. An earsplitting crack echoed through the room as Duo proved that even in his miserable condition he had a mean right hook. The force of the blow knocked both Trowa and Duo off their feet.

"I asked you for help!" Duo yelled. He shrunk in on himself, curling into a trembling knot on the floor. Tears slipped from his vacant amethyst eyes, his voice dropping to a miserable whimper. "I begged you."

Wufei nearly exploded. Visibly seething, he rounded on Trowa, ready to beat the brunette pilot into oblivion if what he had just heard proved to be true. Quatre simply stared at his lover in hurt disbelief. Neither had a chance to say anything. Sally and three surgeons sprinted into the room, hastily responding to the silence of the monitoring equipment Duo had unintentionally unhooked when he had lunged across the room. Cold fury swept across the doctor's face when she saw the American on the floor.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, rushing to Duo's side. Her eyes flickered over his shivering form, trying to find any injuries. When the other three pilots stood watching her, stunned, she turned on them in her frustration. "Get out! All of you! Out!"

Wufei physically dragged Trowa from the room, intent on beating an answer out of him if necessary. Still in shock at the revelation that his lover had known what was happening, Quatre followed them silently out of the room. His final glance back to the room allowed him a glimpse of Duo struggling with the doctors, desperate to escape.

Unable to get the panic-stricken teen back into the hospital bed, Sally finally left the room, returning quickly with a hypodermic needle full of a potent sedative. As much as she hated to drug the American, his breathing was growing ragged and he was beginning to sweat profusely. Worried that he would do damage to his recovering lungs or heart, she quickly injected the tranquilizer. The exhausted pilot quickly collapsed into unconsciousness.

The next time Duo regained consciousness, he was careful to hide the fact that he was coherent, his instincts from the war flaring to life in response to his battered emotions. His respiration didn't change in the slightest. His heartbeat only flickered a hint faster before settling to its previous rhythm. Remaining perfectly still and completely silent, he tried to listen to his surroundings to determine what was going on. He was tempted to open his eyes a crack to look around, but he was afraid to, remembering the state of his vision the last time he was awake.

There were a few beeping noises he disregarded immediately. Whatever they were, they were automated and not relevant. After a few moments, he decided that he could hear someone breathing. Someone was beside the bed he was lying in. He struggled with himself to keep from flinching at the proximity of whoever else was in the room. Finally, he managed to calm his nerves enough to listen carefully to the person beside him. The breaths were smooth and slow, perfectly steady in rhythm. Duo allowed himself to smirk. Whoever was in the room was asleep.

Wiggling experimentally, Duo found that he was not tied down in any way. The only thing he found holding him in place were a few measly needles buried in his arms, which he removed immediately, and a couple of electrodes attached to his chest to monitor his heart.

Silently, he slipped off of the bed, scowling when his legs threatened to give out. He was careful to steady himself before moving over to the equipment. He knew that a change in the pattern of beeps or a complete absence of them would probably wake up whoever was in the room. Undaunted, he ran his hands over the equipment beside his bed. Within the span of a few seconds, he had the side off and was tracing the wiring with his fingers.

Fifteen minutes later, he had the machine completely rewired. Before, it would have taken him under a minute, but unable to see what he was looking at, he had been forced to trace each and every wire with his fingertips. Finished, he pulled the irritating wires from his chest, clenching his jaw when the sticky pads yanked painfully at his skin.

Ignoring the fact that he was winded, he walked away from the monitoring equipment, hands held in front of him. After he had found the wall with his fingertips, he left one hand trailing the wall as he walked slowly around the room, free hand leading. He came to a corner. Swiping his free hand along the new wall, he frowned. Cursing his luck, he started in the other direction. He met another corner. His searching hands found a door immediately next to it.

Instincts flared to life again and he paused, pressing one ear to the door. Violet eyes widened in shock at the sheer amount of noise just outside of the door. Several conversations were going on and more footsteps than he could count resounded from just outside the door.

Torn between escaping the room and hiding from the people outside, he hesitated. The small pause was all the time needed for the occupant of the room to rouse and spot him.

"Maxwell?"

Hearing the word, Duo flattened himself to the wall, trying to back through it. His training fought with him and he raised his fists shakily. The result of the combined actions left him with his legs sprawled at awkward angles, arms extended in a fashion not conducive to his balance, and his back still pressed firmly against the wall. He was aware he was hyperventilating, but he didn't care. The only thing that mattered was staying away from any threats. In his terrified state, however, saw everyone as a deadly threat.

"Why are you out of bed?"

Duo stiffened, desperately trying to gauge the location of whoever was in the room. He was surprised when he realized that whoever had been by his bed hadn't moved. Minimally calmed by the realization, he let his mind pick apart the soft words. He knew that voice. He tentatively called out to the other person in the room.

"Wufei?"

Hearing a slight shift from near the bed, he flattened himself more firmly against the wall, his instincts and training vanishing in the midst of his terror. The movement immediately halted.

"Did you need something?" Wufei asked softly.

"N-no," Duo stammered. "I just…"

"Felt like dismantling something in the hospital?" Wufei supplied.

"You saw that?" Duo asked timidly. He shifted uncomfortably, wondering just how long the Chinese teen had been awake.

"No," Wufei answered. Duo swore he could hear a smirk in his voice. "But that fact that it's still on and you're on the other side of the room was my first hint. The second would be that you forgot to put it back together."

Duo blinked, frowning slightly as he wondered how he could have forgotten something so simple. Reflexively, his eyes flickered towards where he could still hear the machine beeping, the removed panel sitting beside it. He visibly flinched when he realized he was still trying to look at objects in the room. Wufei saw his expression and tried to distract him.

"Now," he started, pausing when Duo flinched again at the sound of his voice. He forced himself to ignore the jumpiness and continued. "Why don't you get back in bed? If the onna catches you out of bed again, I'm going to get kicked out." When Duo didn't respond, he continued his attempt to get the traumatized American to move on his own. He was wary of touching the brunette after what had happened the last time. "Come on, Maxwell. If Po kicks me out of here, I'm going to have to put up with Winner. You've seen the expression he gets when he pouts."

That got a reaction. Duo flinched and turned his head away. Wufei silently began cursing his stupidity in mentioning anything related to vision. The next words out of Duo's mouth shocked him. He had come to the wrong conclusion.

"Why isn't he here? I know Trowa doesn't like me, but I thought…" he trailed off, swallowing roughly. "Why are you here?"

Wufei stiffened at the insinuation. He openly said that Trowa wasn't here because he didn't like him, and then questioned his own motives. Duo thought that he hated him.

"I'm here because I want to be," he said firmly. "Quatre refuses to come back in until you tell him that he can. He's blaming himself for what happened. He thinks that if he had been at home the day you called, that this wouldn't have happened."

Duo flinched again. This time, Wufei didn't even have to wonder about the reason for it. He knew that any mention of what Heero had done would likely upset the American, but the issue couldn't be sidestepped easily. He was hard pressed not to move towards the shivering form huddled miserably against the wall.

"And Trowa?"

There was a small pause before Wufei answered, the Chinese pilot debating whether or not the information would upset the American.

"He returned to the circus." Duo's brow furrowed slightly. Taking a deep breath, Wufei decided to tell him everything. "Quatre left him. Trowa told us that he had no idea of what was happening, but Quatre refuses to forgive him until you do."

"Heero?"

Onyx eyes flashed in anger. He knew why Duo was asking, but the fact that the American thought he had to check with them to see if they were protecting him was infuriating. Duo had always trusted them before. He finally made up his mind on something he had been debating over for three months.

"Heero," he said, grinding his teeth in fury at what his former colleague had done to his friend, "will not be bothering you or anyone else again. I shot him."

Duo slid to the floor, trembling, eyes clenched shut as he shook his head. Tears slipped down his cheeks. Wufei had to fight to refrain from ripping his hair out. He couldn't believe that Duo would be upset about that piece of information.

"Maxwell," he started, intent on telling him just what he thought of the Japanese pilot. He stopped short when he heard a soft stream of words coming from the pale teen.

"He got shot because of me. He's going to be mad. Oh, God…"

Understanding dawned in Wufei's mind. Duo wasn't upset that Heero had been shot. He was terrified he was going to suffer the repercussions for it. That was the final straw. Wufei jumped out of his chair and sprinted across the room, skidding to a halt beside the quaking boy. Without thinking about it, he tried to pull Duo into his arms. Duo went ballistic.

Weak or not, Duo was fast. Wufei realized this at roughly the moment when a fist connected with his jaw and a knee was planted in his stomach simultaneously. Suddenly feeling sorry for the medical personnel that had dealt with Duo the previous day, he decided that there was only one way to retain the upset American without hurting him. After several tries and taking another few blows, Wufei managed to wrap his arms around the frantic brunette and pin him.

The change was immediate. The moment he was fully restrained, Duo froze, every muscle in his body tensed to the point of trembling. Wufei tried to shift into a better position. In his arms, Duo whimpered and flinched.

_He thinks I'm going to hurt him_, Wufei realized. He stared at the miserable figure in his arms for a moment, feeling completely helpless. Unsure of what to do, he carefully stood up, pulling the trembling form into his arms and carrying him to the bed. Duo remained rigid the entire time.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Maxwell!" Wufei said pleadingly. Duo shook his head slightly, his eyes clenched shut.

"Heero…"

"I shot him," Wufei growled. "He's dead, Maxwell."

Duo's head swiveled towards him instantly, violet eyes wide and desperate. He opened and closed his mouth several times before actually speaking.

"Are you…"

"Sure?" Wufei finished. He scowled slightly. "Very. I put four holes through his skull. Even he cannot survive that."

The tension drained from Duo's body and he went lax against the narrow hospital bed. Wufei realized with a start that this was the most relaxed he had seen the American in over a year. As much as he wanted to let his weary friend rest, there was something he still had to do.

"Winner is going to assault me the moment I step out of the room," he grumbled, trying to sound as if he were pouting. Violet eyes flickered vaguely in his direction. "What do you want me to tell him?"

"He… can come in," Duo answered hesitantly.

Wufei started to nod before he caught himself. "Very well. I'll return later. ICU only allows one visitor at a time." Before Duo could respond, he was gone.

Quatre was in the room within the span of a few seconds. The blond barely remembered not to touch the traumatized American. He tried to start several conversations, all of them failing. Duo responded lethargically, only saying a few words when pressed. Unable to stand doing nothing, he offered to fix the machine Duo had rewired. He was rewarded with a soft noise he couldn't identify. Choosing to believe it was an affirmative, he moved cautiously towards the equipment the brunette had tinkered with, being careful to speak the entire time so that the disturbed pilot would know where he was.

After several hours of speaking to himself, Quatre finally gave up and left, promising to visit again soon. Though he was trying desperately not to show it, he was worried about Duo. The American pilot seemed to be in a permanent state of shock and, it galled him to admit it, he didn't know how to help.

To Be Continued…

I'm not getting any nicer, am I? Don't worry. The next section will make everything better. Maybe… That all depends on whether or not you review. So R&R! If you want Duo to survive, R&R. And, yes, I am that vindictive. hides


	4. Part 4

Afterimages

Part 4

By Mieren

Author's note:  (I don't usually put these here, but this time I think it's necessary.)

Warning!  This is very **dark and disturbed**, even by my standards.  Contains **graphic violence**, **rape** and **death**.  This is **YAOI** (if you don't know, don't ask, just run now).  If you're not comfortable with it, don't read!  I'm not responsible for any nightmares or bouts of nausea related to reading this.  Suing me will only get you a headache.  (I'm a student.  I own nothing.)  Any and all flames will be laughed at, printed and used to wipe my butt.  So there.

*     *     *

Following his initial relief at his safety from the deceased Japanese pilot, Duo began to withdraw from sanity, his tentative hold on reality slipping.  Sally finally had to stop his friends from visiting when he continued to react increasingly badly to their presence.  Despite constant reassurances that no one would hurt him again, he had lost all trust in humanity, set on believing that he would be betrayed again.

Sally was honestly stumped.  He was physically healthy enough to leave, but he was an emotional wreck.  Even had he still been mentally stable, he had nowhere to go home to, his apartment still taped off by the police.  It had taken Quatre's social standing to strong-arm the police into allowing them to go claim all of the American's possessions.

The frazzled doctor watched as Duo frightened another nurse out of the room, his aim still amazingly good.  A clock shattered against the doorframe.  She made a mental note not to let him have access to any more alarm clocks.  Three nurses, one doctor, five residents and two janitors had been knocked unconscious by the various items he had thrown.  Sally couldn't help but note wryly that Wufei was the only person he hadn't tried to pulverize.  After the Chinese pilot had been pegged by a large book, a twenty-minute rant had ensued, leaving both Duo and the entire hospital staff in something of a state of shock.  Since then, no one had bothered the raven-haired teen.

Deciding that there was no other way, Sally stopped Wufei before he could visit the troubled American.  Like every day, he had come to see the untrusting brunette, and she expected him to get flustered and leave before too long.  Duo was being exceptionally violent, refusing to let the nurses in with his meal, something that he normally tolerated.  Wufei frowned at her slightly at the interruption but waited silently for her to speak.

After making her request, she wondered if it hadn't been a mistake to ask him.  With his eyes blazing and jaw clenched, he looked suspiciously like he was going to go off on another tirade about injustice, a muscle in his cheek twitching wildly.  Visiting the American was one thing, but what she had requested was entirely another.  She was about to retract her request when the indignant expression softened and he nodded tersely.

Shocked that he had actually conceded, she could only watch open-mouthed as he moved past her to go to the American's room.  The moment he opened the door, he was accosted with a bedpan from a certain paranoid brunette.  The twitch in Wufei's cheek returned.

"Maxwell!"

*     *     *

Wufei glared over his shoulder, knowing perfectly well that the silent form being pulled behind him couldn't see it.  He was honestly considering throwing another temper tantrum.  For some reason, he was the only person that Duo wouldn't openly attack or try to escape from.  Unfortunately, the brunette seemed to be terrified of him.  Whenever Wufei was around him, he became perfectly passive, making no move to defend himself.  He barely dared to breathe when the Chinese pilot was in the same room with him.  Wufei suspected that his occasional tirades had frightened the unstable American.

Sighing, he led the trembling teen into his house, wondering why he had agreed to Sally's request that he allow the American to move in with him.  The Preventers had given him a long paid leave of absence while he helped his friend.  He had all the time in the world to work with his friend, but was still unsure if he would be able to help.

He released Duo's wrist for a moment to open the door to his small house.  Duo immediately folded his arms protectively across his chest, shrinking in on himself slightly.  Frowning, Wufei grabbed his wrist again, clenching his jaw when the other boy flinched at the contact.  Although he was obviously afraid, Duo made no move to reclaim his wrist or defend himself, even though he clearly expected to be hit for something.

Grumbling silently, he led the strangely silent brunette around the house, calmly showing him where everything was.  He finally showed the American the small guest room he had fixed up, leading him around to familiarize the other boy with the layout of the room, showing him where all of his possessions were stored so he didn't have to search fruitlessly for anything.  Luckily, the room had a small bathroom attached.  Wufei honestly didn't think that Duo would be comfortable with having to share a bathroom yet.

Sighing at the lack of response, Wufei led him to the bed and pushed him to a sitting position, telling him that he'd come back when he had dinner ready.  Duo remained silent.  His only response was a dull scanning of the room, his vacant violet eyes tracing afterimages that only he could see.

*     *     *

When Wufei returned, he expected the American to be doing something.  Fiddling with his hair, listening to the radio, covering the walls with shaving cream.  Something.  Anything.  What he found was the brunette sitting exactly where he had left him, shivering as though he was afraid to move a muscle.  Which, Wufei concluded, he probably was.

Sighing, Wufei took his wrist, pulling the silent figure to his feet and leading him from the room.  It was in a state of wonder that he noticed how lethargically the slight boy followed him, completely uncaring.  There was no blind feeling for objects, no searching out possible footings.  Wufei could have walked him into a wall or down a flight of stairs and the American wouldn't have known until it was too late.

Inexplicably feeling guilty, he led the brunette to a chair, placing a plate of food in front of him and pushing a fork into the limp fingers.  When he took his own seat, the American still hadn't moved.  Worried that he may have to feed Duo, he watched anxiously for a few minutes, wondering silently just how badly the American feared him.  Several minutes passed without movement.

He was about to take the fork back from the unmoving form when Duo finally moved.  His left hand trailed across the table gingerly, his fingers tracing the edge of the plate.  He deftly moved his fork, scooping up the food on the plate with surprising ease.  Breathing out heavily in relief, Wufei started in on his own meal, wondering mutely if he would be able to help his friend.

*     *     *

After two weeks, Wufei was ready to rip his hair out in frustration.  Duo still refused to speak or do anything on his own unless he was specifically led to it.  He felt helpless, unable to do anything for the distraught brunette.  Even after all the time Wufei had spent with him, Duo still flinched and shied away from him whenever he came within ten feet of him.  He was almost ready to give up and pass the American off to Quatre when the answer came to him without warning, found abandoned in a small box in a parking lot.

Hoping that he had made the right decision, he walked quickly into his house with something clutched to his chest.  Duo was sitting on the couch, exactly where Wufei had left him before going out to do a few errands.  Undaunted, Wufei walked calmly up to him, depositing his burden in the American's lap.

Duo jerked, but made no move to pick up what had been dropped on him.  He would have remained perfectly still, but his attention was caught by an irritated movement in his lap and a demanding mew.  Violet eyes widened.  Hands trembling slightly, he reached to the small weight on his legs, fingers curling around a small fuzzy form that wriggled in his grasp and mewed again sleepily.  Refusing to remain in his hands, the kitten squirmed its way free.  Once free of his grasp, it ran up Duo's shirt to sit on his shoulder, batting absently at his loose hair.

Blinking, Duo reached for the tiny wiggling form, only to have it dart out of his reach again, moving to his other shoulder.  Before he could try to grab it again, it decided that his ear was the perfect pacifier, gathering up his earlobe in a tiny fanged mouth and sucking nosily.  Looking shocked, Duo turned his gaze to the general area where Wufei was standing, watching interestedly.

"Wufei?" he asked softly.

Wufei nearly jumped out of his skin, a wide grin spreading across his face.  That was the first time Duo had spoken voluntarily since dismantling the hospital equipment.  Relieved that he had finally found something to pull his friend out of his shock, he chuckled softly and leaned against the wall, knowing better than to crowd the brunette.

"She reminded me of you," he answered, smirking.  "She's solid black, overly hyper and completely insane.  I named her Baka."

Violet eyes flashed.  Duo opened his mouth to protest when he noticed that the tiny kitten was still sucking on his ear.  He pouted slightly.

"I'm not calling her that," he muttered, pulling the kitten off his shoulder and placing her back in his lap.  Immediately, the little ball of fuzz ran right back up to his shoulder and began attacking his hair with a passion.  His attempt to reclaim the kitten from his shoulders resulted with the kitten on the top of his head, tangled in his hair.  He made a face.

"Really?" Wufei drawled, smiling when he saw Duo pout.  "Then what would you name her?"  Duo didn't even pause before responding.

"Shini."

_How did I know you'd pick that name?_ Wufei wondered silently.  He grunted softly to get Duo's attention.  "Whatever.  It's your job to take care of Baka."  Duo scowled.

"Shini," he countered.

"Whatever," Wufei said again.  "The litter is in your closet.  The litter box is in the corner of your room nearest the window.  Baka's food is in the pantry, left side, bottom shelf."

Duo scowled at him at his insistence of using the wrong name for his new pet.  The brunette finally snorted and proceeded to ignore him, captivated by the wiggly black form that was crawling all over him.  It was painfully obvious that the American had never had a pet before.  Wufei smiled to himself and left the room.

To Be Continued…

Sorry it's short, the next section should be longer.  Sorry about the massive delay too.  Problems here, you know.  First, there were finals.  Then I had to move.  While moving, my computer was damaged badly.  I lost everything.  I'm still trying to get the bloody thing working.  It'll be awhile before I do.  I'm trying though, I swear.  More coming as soon as the evil computer is running again.  R&R!!


	5. Part 5

Afterimages

Part 5

By Mieren

Wufei spent the next month purposely addressing the kitten by the wrong name, enjoying the indignant look that would appear on Duo's face.  He made it a point to complain about the black furball, constantly grumbling about black cat hair on his white clothes.  At first, Duo looked upset that he was going to lose his new pet.  When he finally realized that the Chinese pilot had no intention of getting rid of the midget cat, he suddenly found the situation hilarious, trying to imagine the black speckling on Wufei's immaculate white clothes.

Shini had taken up riding on Duo's shoulders, hiding beneath his hair.  Duo made no attempt to get her to reside elsewhere, despite Wufei's taunting that he would end up with fleas.

Inwardly, Wufei was relieved that the cat had accomplished what he had been unable to.  Duo was slowly relaxing, returning to his former self.  For awhile, he hesitated on braiding his shortened hair again, afraid that it would upset Shini.  After his first session of braided hair, however, he stopped worrying.  The little black cat seemed to enjoy slapping around the thick rope of hair.

Once Duo had started speaking again, Wufei went out and bought a few books in Braille for the braided pilot.  At first, Duo had simply ran his fingers blankly over the pages, completely lost.  After a few days, his fingers began to move more steadily over the small bumps on the pages, Duo's face scrunched up in concentration as he read.  He became frustrated easily, but still refused to give up.  He only stopped his attempts when Wufei announced that there was food or when Shini attacked his trailing fingers.  Even with the distractions, two weeks later he was reading Braille almost as quickly as Wufei could normal text, much to the Chinese pilot's amazement.

Nearly upon the Christmas holidays, Wufei had returned to work, finally comfortable leaving the American pilot alone.  The moment he arrived at work, he was surrounded by coworkers that wanted to know about Duo.  Wufei quickly overcame his shock at being cornered by several dozen people and responded simply, stating that the American was recovering.  Past that, he refused to give details, irritating many of the other Preventers who were worried about the longhaired teen.

After a long day of dodging questions, Wufei sighed in relief when he realized that it was time for him to go home.  Before leaving, he checked his email for anything important, frowning at one of the messages staring back at him.  With a thoughtful look, he shut down the browser and turned off his computer.

*     *     *

Arriving home, Wufei greeted Duo as he always did, trying to seem indifferent in one breath while cursing Shini in the next.  Shini, as always, was lying across Duo's shoulders, participating in one of her favorite hobbies.  Sucking on his ears.  The Chinese pilot muttered something about fleas and horrible infectious diseases carried by cats before heading towards the kitchen.  As always, this caused Duo to start chuckling.  Just to see what would happen, he began grumbling about the legend of cats sucking a person's soul out through their mouth while they slept.  Duo actually froze at that, tilting his head to better hear the shorter pilot.  After making out what the raven-haired teen was muttering, he simply grinned wider and went back to surfing channels on the television.

Wufei flinched.  Even though Duo couldn't see what was on the television, that didn't stop him from watching it.  Or listening to it, anyways.  For some reason, the American could never stay on any channel for more than ten seconds.  Wufei listened to the half sentences of various news broadcasts and talk shows for several minutes before snapping.

"Just pick a channel!" he roared.  He heard a giggle.  The channels began to jump faster.  Wufei cursed loudly.  "Pick one or I'll dye Baka fluorescent lime green!"

There was a short pause in the channel hunt.  A station was finally selected.  Sighing in relief, Wufei continued to work on dinner.  He could hear the theme song to some idiotic anime series playing in the next room, but he ignored it.  Anything was better than knowing what a hundred different channels were playing every minute.

Wufei waited until dinner was finished cooking and they had both eaten before bringing up the email he had received.  He spoke before Duo could move to get up from the table.

"Duo," he began, waiting for a response.  He didn't want to bring up the topic at all if the brunette couldn't even hold up a simple conversation.  To his surprise, Duo responded immediately.

"Yes?"

"I received an email today about the Christmas party being held this year," he said, stopping purposely.  Duo frowned slightly at the minimal information.

"And?"

Wufei had to brace himself, hoping that the American wouldn't respond badly to what he was about so say.

"They're looking for someone to sing at the party," he said quickly.  As expected, Duo flinched, so he continued quickly before lost his nerve.  "I've heard you in the shower, Maxwell.  I know you can sing."

Duo frowned.  Emotions flickered across his face faster than Wufei could interpret them.  Finally, he let out a heavy breath.

"What… songs?" he grated out.

Wufei slumped into his chair in relief.  He was dreading bringing up the topic of dragging Duo into public again.  Considering the touchy nature of the brunette, he was amazed that Duo had given in so quickly.

"For the most part, anything you want," he answered.  "Just be prepared to take a few requests later on in the night."

Duo's frown deepened.  He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to ask something but losing the nerve before he was able to.  Finally, he managed to spit out a question.

"Do you want me to do this?" he asked in a whisper.  Amethyst eyes flickered in Wufei's vague direction, slightly fearful.

"Only if you want to," Wufei answered firmly.  "I'd like to see you singing, but I won't force you to do anything you don't want to."

Duo scowled.  It was obvious that he didn't want to go out, but at the same time, he didn't want to upset Wufei either.  Issuing a loud, grumbling sigh, he nodded tersely.

"Can I sing any Valby?" he asked, a mischievous grin slowly forming on his face.  Wufei paused, not trusting that expression.

"Who, or what, is Valby?" he asked suspiciously.

Grinning manically, Duo rattled off a few verses of one of his favorite Valby songs.  Within the first two phrases, Wufei was running for a tissue to quell his nosebleed.

"NO!" Wufei snapped, still pressing a wad of tissues against his nose in a vain attempt to control the blood flow.  "You will sing nothing of his!"

Wufei growled since he knew that Duo couldn't see him scowling.  Despite the fact that what Duo had been singing was a Christmas song, it was an extremely demented and perverted song that probably would have sent Wufei into a coma had he heard the entire thing.  He had never even considered that The Twelve Days of Christmas could be warped so badly.

The scowl on Wufei's face deepened.  Duo was laughing at him, obviously recognizing the slightly nasal quality to his voice as his vain attempt to rid himself of a nosebleed.

Huffing loudly one final time, he calmed down and reclaimed his seat, still watching Duo closely.  The braided pilot, though mostly physically recovered, was still skittish, especially around large groups.  The one and only time Wufei had tried to take him out with him while running errands, he had been forced to wrestle the hysterical brunette back into the car.  Wufei was the only person he allowed near him, and even that wasn't a certain thing.  Every now and then, Duo would still try to avoid him, flinching at his presence.

Frowning slightly, Wufei realized that Duo hadn't actually shied away from him in a little over a week.  Curious, he extended his arm, placing his hand on Duo's where it rested on the table.

Duo jerked once before going perfectly still, eyes wide.  Cursing himself for intentionally scaring his skittish friend, Wufei started to pull his hand back.  He had barely moved his fingers away when he stopped, too stunned to move.

The startled expression on Duo's face melted slightly to mild confusion.  He shifted his hand, fingers splayed as he searched across the table.  Immediately, he located Wufei's hand where it remained motionless a few inches away.  Wufei watched carefully, not quite sure what was going through the other boy's mind.  He found out a moment later when, after a second of indecisiveness, Duo gingerly placed his hand on top of Wufei's, curling his fingers around the raven-haired boy's hand.

Wufei's jaw dropped.  He hadn't been expecting that.  To his chagrin, he realized that he must have given Duo the impression that he wanted to hold hands.  What shocked him even more was when he realized that he really didn't mind.  A slight smile flickered over his lips and he twisted his hand in Duo's delicate grip to hold hands with the American properly.  He was instantly rewarded by a hesitant smile, one of the few real ones he had seen since the other boy moved in.

Feeling stupid for sitting at the table holding hands in complete silence, Wufei began squirming slightly.  He cleared his throat hesitantly, trying to think of something.

"Go pick a movie," he said, pulling back his hand.  Duo blinked at him.  "I'll be in after I clear the dishes."

Duo nodded and wandered out of the kitchen.  Wufei sighed softly in relief.  He had been worried that Duo would take it as a sign of rejection when he let go of his hand.

Before he could begin to seriously ponder, he heard the television come to life, the opening credits to one of Duo's movies coming up within seconds.  Surprised at how fast the braided boy could move, he quickly dumped all of the plates into the sink, deciding that he would take care of the mess later.  He hurried into the living room.

Duo was seated on the sofa, his hands fiddling with the remote control to the DVD player.  Normally, Wufei would sit in the small armchair to give Duo his space, but he decided against it this time.  Instead, he carefully sat down on the far end of the sofa, mindful of Duo's reaction.  If the braided boy showed any hint of nervousness, he was prepared to move.  When the brunette only squirmed slightly, he decided to stay where he was.

Finally knowing that it was safe to sit so close to the American, Wufei relaxed and glanced at the movie Duo had selected.  A slight, nearly inaudible, groan escaped his lips.  The braided teen had picked The Tenth Kingdom.  The movie was over six hours long.

A small movement caught his attention and Wufei flicked his eyes to the side to make sure that Duo hadn't reconsidered tolerating the proximity between them.  He expected to see Duo shying away from him.  Instead, he found that the brunette was in the exact same position he had been in when Wufei had entered the room, with one small change.  His left hand had dropped from his lap and was a short distance from his body.

Deciding that the minimally extended hand was a silent plea, Wufei shifted slightly closer to the other pilot so that he could wrap his hand around the proffered one.  The fingers in his grasp immediately tightened into a firm grip.

The simple contact was so distracting to Wufei that he didn't notice the first hour of the movie slip by, the entirety of his attention focused on the slender fingers intertwined with his.  Every few minutes, Duo would squirm and wriggle where he was seated.  Wufei was so centered on their linked hands that he didn't notice what Duo was doing until the braided boy's shoulder touched his.  Wufei instantly crimsoned.

Finally realizing what Duo was doing, Wufei clenched his jaw, trying to ignore his burning cheeks.  Steeling himself against his natural shyness, he released Duo's hand, trying not to flinch at the shocked and slightly hurt expression on the other boy's face.  Before Duo could try to squirm away, Wufei wrapped his freed arm around the brunette's shoulders and pulled him closer.  In response, Duo reflexively stiffened.  After a few seconds, he relaxed and moved to press against the Chinese boy's side, causing Wufei's blush to intensify.

The movie continued, forgotten by the two teens in the room.  Every few minutes, Duo would surprise Wufei again.  At first, he just shifted closer, pressing their hips and thighs together.  The Chinese pilot turned from pink to red.  When Duo pulled the arm around his shoulders down to his waist, Wufei went maroon.  In a final movement, the braided boy placed his head on Wufei's shoulder, the top of his head resting against the other boy's cheek.  By this point, the raven-haired teen was positive that he was purple.

"Are… you blushing?" Duo asked slowly, sounding slightly incredulous.

"How do you… what makes you say that?" Wufei stammered.  He could feel his cheeks getting hotter.  Duo's hand slipped up and pressed against his cheek and the Chinese boy swore that he heard a muffled giggle against his throat.

"You are," Duo chuckled.  He sobered up quickly, starting to shift away.  "I… I'm making you uncomfortable, aren't I?"

Recognizing Duo's attempt to retreat, Wufei tightened his hold slightly.  The braided boy stopped moving, but he turned his head away.  Unsure of himself, Wufei reached out his free hand to gently grasp the other boy's jaw, turning his head so that they were face to face.  A sudden impulse ran through his mind.  Before he could lose his nerve, he leaned forward, pressing his lips to the American's in a gentle kiss.  Duo's eyes grew impossibly large, a pink hue spreading across his cheeks when Wufei pulled back.

"Now you're blushing too," Wufei said, unable to help himself.  "So we're even."

"That was low, Chang," Duo growled.

Wufei paused, considering.  The only times he had ever heard Duo call him by his family name was when the other pilot was either teasing him or was really angry.  Hoping that it was the former, he continued with his chosen path of conversation.

"Serves you right," he countered, huffing slightly.  "Especially after you dyed my hair pink."

The corner of Duo's mouth twitched upwards even as his lips tightened.  Despite his best efforts to glare, a poorly muffled snicker escaped his lips.  It was then that he gave up and allowed himself to laugh aloud.

"You… you had pink… highlights for a month," Duo hiccupped.

"It wasn't funny," Wufei muttered under his breath.  "Do you realize that I had to fight Treize like that?"  Duo laughed louder.  "It's not funny!  He took pictures!  I think Zechs has a copy!"

"Really?" Duo forced out between chuckles, curiosity warring with amusement.  Wufei's eyes widened in fear.

"Don't you dare," he growled.  "Whatever you're planning, don't."

"Aw, but Wu," he pleaded, his innocent look cracking under his uncontained laughter.

Wufei reeled in shock, a delighted grin slowly creeping onto his features.  It was the first time Duo had slaughtered his name since Heero had broken him.  He hadn't even realized how much he had missed the defiling of his name until a moment ago.  He would have stared for another few moments if Duo's expression hadn't started to show an edge of worry to it, the miserable look telling the Chinese teen that he shouldn't have gone silent.

Immediately correcting himself, he growled menacingly.

"Laugh at me, will you," he hissed, trying to sound sinister and failing.  He could go into earsplitting rants, sulky pouts and indignant huffs, but he could not sound sinister.  Duo waited uncertainly, shifting away slightly.

Seeing the movement, Wufei attacked, flipping Duo onto his back and pinning him effortlessly.  The braided pilot froze, fear beginning to seep into his expression.  Wufei almost relented before deciding to continue.

"Now that I have you, what should I do with you?" he murmured to himself.

He shifted his grip slightly to hold both of Duo's wrists in one hand.  With his right hand free, he trailed his fingers across his captive's sides.  Duo made a muffled noise and squirmed.  Wufei crowed triumphantly.

"You _are_ ticklish!" he exclaimed, smirking.  "I knew it!"

Violet eyes blinked numbly before understanding dawned in the clear amethyst depths.  An incredulous and slightly wary look settled on Duo's face.

"You wouldn't dare," he growled.

Wufei snorted and ran his fingers over the same spot that had elicited a response, tormenting the thinner boy ruthlessly.  After a few seconds of watching the pinned teen writhe helplessly, he began experimenting.  He quickly found that Duo's abdomen, stroked just above the hip, caused the brunette to squeal loudly and thrash like a wild animal.

"No fair!" Duo panted, glaring.  "What did I ever do to you?"

"For starters, you hid my ceremonial sword," Wufei huffed indignantly, poking him in the stomach again.

"I left you a replacement!" Duo objected, starting to turn red.

"You put a four foot titanium dildo on the wall where my sword should have been!  I don't even want to know where you found that thing!"

"It was tournament certified!"

"Now I'm scared," Wufei honestly admitted.  "What kind of tournament would certify _that_?  Never mind!  Don't answer that!"

"I got rid of it for you, didn't I?" Duo asked, panting loudly.

"You did," Wufei conceded.  "What exactly did you do with it?"

"I tied a white ribbon around it and sent it to Noin in your name."

"YOU WHAT???"

"I told her that it was what onnas were for," Duo said cheerfully, trying to use Wufei's shock to free himself.  The Chinese pilot's grip didn't budge.

"No wonder she gets so mad every time I call her that," he groaned.

"I put the charge on Zechs's personal credit card and then bugged his phone so I could hear him try to contend the charge."

"And?" Wufei asked dryly.

"He never did.  I think he was too embarrassed to say anything."

"Maxwell," he said sternly, waiting.  When he saw that he had Duo's full attention, he continued.  "You have committed innumerable grievous sins against my person and as such, I demand full repentance for your misdeeds."

"Um…"

"Beginning with your word of honor that you will NEVER glue me to my bed again."

"Okay," Duo offered tentatively.  Wufei grinned and leaned forward to give him a gentle kiss on his lips.

"Good boy," Wufei said, unable to fight back a chuckle.  Duo had finally recognized the game for what it was and was smirking slightly.  "Furthermore, Maxwell, you will stop training Baka to urinate in my shoes."

"Oh, okay," Duo said sullenly, amusement sparkling though the forced somber expression.

"Good boy," Wufei repeated, giving him another chaste kiss.  He ruffled the brunette's hair and stood up, freeing his hostage.  "And now, Maxwell, I've got to go to sleep.  One of us has to work tomorrow, after all."

Wufei quickly retreated before Duo could retaliate, ducking into the relative safety of his room, relative being the key word.

"Maxwell!"

Duo had short sheeted his bed.

To Be Continued…

This was supposed to be the last section, but I haven't quite wrapped it up yet, so there's more to come.  R&R!!!


	6. Part 6

Afterimages

Part 6

By Mieren

Three days had passed since they had watched the movie together.

As always, Duo managed to wake up before Wufei did.  The Chinese pilot entered the kitchen to find the braided pilot carefully working his way around some of the simpler items in the room.  He had successfully started a pot of coffee and the toaster.  In his hands, he held a large bowl of pancake batter, mixing it carefully.  His fingers were dipped slightly into the bowl to ensure he didn't slop the stuff onto the floor as he energetically mixed it.  Wufei watched in silent amusement as he gently kicked Shini off of his ankle, the small black cat intent on gnawing off his foot for some unknown reason.

Not seeming to notice Wufei's presence, Duo set the bowl of batter on the counter and pulled a skillet out of the drainer, tossing it with surprising accuracy onto the stovetop, turning on the burner.  He took up the batter again and continued mixing it, pausing to detach the small black cat from his calf again.  Grumbling, he set down the bowl again and walked over to the pantry, reaching unerringly for the cat food.  Popping open a small can, he moved a few steps to the side and flipped the contents expertly into the waiting dish on the floor.  Shini attacked the food with relish, as it apparently tasted better than Duo's leg.

Careful not to give himself away, Wufei continued to watch.  Although the American was always awake before he was, he had never before attempted to cook.  He watched with some trepidation as Duo deftly washed his hands before grabbing the pancake batter, unsure of how his blind companion would be able to handle a stove.  Ebony eyes widened when the braided teen felt out the skillet with his free hand, missing the handle and tapping the metal directly.  Duo winced and withdrew his hand, waving it in a wider circle to locate the handle of the pan.  When his fingers came in contact, he repositioned the handle with a deliberate motion to a position where he could more easily find it.

Skillet finally in a place where he wanted it, Duo carefully dipped some batter into the pan in three perfectly even circles.  Placing the batter back on the counter, he abandoned the skillet to set the table.  Wufei openly gaped when Duo returned to the cooking pancakes, flipping them easily and leaving again as he moved to pour drinks to set at the table.  Again, he had a finger hooked into the top of each glass, careful not to allow orange juice to overflow onto the floor.  In both glasses, the liquid stopped abruptly a quarter of an inch below his finger.  Wufei's jaw dropped at the precision and he wondered how Duo managed it.

He continued to stare as Duo poked the pancakes with one finger to test them before flipping them off of the skillet onto a waiting plate.  He promptly started another batch.  While they cooked, he began dragging items from the fridge.  Syrup, butter and a few types of jelly materialized on the table.

The pancakes were flipped again.  A second skillet appeared along with a few seemingly random items from the fridge.  After removing the pancakes and starting a third batch, Duo began making omelets.  Wufei continued to stare.

A mere few minutes later, a plate of pancakes sat in the middle of the table and an omelet was placed neatly in front of each seat.  Duo grinned and winked in Wufei's direction.

"You can sit down, you know," he chuckled.  Wufei gawped for another few seconds before he was able to stutter out a response.

"How long did you know I was here?" he asked, stunned.  Duo laughed louder.

"Since you walked in.  You make enough noise to wake the dead."

Knowing that Duo couldn't see his glare, he settled on snorting loudly as he claimed his seat.  He remained silent for a few seconds, trying to decide how to phrase his thoughts without sounding insensitive.  He could hardly ask Duo how he could cook blind, instead settling on a milder line of questioning.

"I didn't know you knew how to cook," he said, watching carefully for his companion's reaction.  Duo's grin faded slightly.

"I used to be pretty good at it.  Now… now I'm having a bit of trouble, ya know?"

Wufei deliberately took a bite of his omelet before answering.

"You cook better than I do," he muttered.  The brunette's smile slipped further, his expression beginning to reveal the strain and helplessness he was feeling.

"I've been working on it," Duo admitted.  "It took a little getting used to."

Wufei wilted slightly where he sat, his mind working overtime trying to figure out just how hard it would be to relearn how to do everything without being able to see it.  He had to forcibly refrain from shivering, knowing that the American would hear the movement.  While he was contemplating a response that wouldn't upset his friend, Duo suddenly spoke up.

"I tried," Duo said in a broken voice.  When Wufei didn't immediately respond, he plowed on.  "I tried to help him.  I thought… if I tried long enough, that I could break through J's training."

Wufei put down his fork, suddenly losing his appetite.  He hadn't been expecting the conversation to come up for a long time and he found that he didn't know exactly what to do to help.  Unable to do anything else, he opted to listen.

"And?" he prompted gently.

"J trained him not to have any emotions, or at least not to express them.  He was supposed to be a weapon, nothing more.  J had never meant for him to survive the war.  He couldn't function in society.  I… I stayed because… I thought I could help him.  I thought I could…  He never responded.  Every time I thought I was getting close, his training would kick in and he'd become violent.  I tried.  Oh God, I tried…"

Duo broke down, trying to flee from the table before he burst out in tears.  Wufei ran after him, catching him in the living room and pulling him to the sofa.  Gathering the braided teen up into his arms, Wufei held him while he wept.  The logical part of his mind told him that he should call in to work and inform Zechs that he would be missing work.  He promptly told his mind to shove it, refusing to leave the distraught American alone.

After nearly an hour, the braided teen calmed down enough to realize the position he was in and what time it had to be.

"Don't you have to be at work?" he asked weakly.

"I'll show up late," Wufei responded gently, shrugging slightly.  "If Zechs doesn't like it, he can shove it."  Duo chuckled softly.

"I think Noin would object," he managed, mouth twitching upwards into a perverted smirk.  Wufei saw the look and had to fight back a blush when he realized what he'd said.

"Especially after what you sent her," Wufei countered softly.  "I still can't believe she hasn't disemboweled me for that."

That won an honest laugh.  It took several seconds before Duo could form a response, and it was still fairly jerky.

"But… it was… tournament certified," he managed to force out.

"And for the love of all things holy, you will NEVER tell me where you found that… that thing," Wufei groused.

"I could show you the store," Duo offered innocently.  "It's not too far from here."

"No," Wufei said firmly.  "In fact, I don't even want to know what you were doing in there."

"I had to use the restroom."

"Sure you did," Wufei drawled, inwardly relieved that the brunette was finally calming down.

He knew that Duo had to eventually talk about what had happened, but that it was still too soon.  Duo wasn't ready any more than Wufei had been.  The Chinese Preventer swore that he wouldn't be caught off guard again.  The next time Duo brought up the subject, he would be ready for it.  He glanced at the taller man sitting awkwardly in his lap and had to bite back a chuckle at the image the two of them made.  Duo was a full head taller than him normally.  The lanky man sitting in his lap made Wufei appear even shorter by comparison.  Even if he was more muscular than the American, they still probably looked ridiculous.  He shook his head and forced his thoughts back to where they should be.

"I'm going to call in sick," Wufei murmured.  Duo snorted.

"Oh no you don't.  You missed enough work because of me.  You're going in or else."

"Or else what?" Wufei asked, unable to help himself.  A truly sinister look formed on Duo's face that worried the shorter man he was sitting on.

"Or else you'll find out what else I bought at that store."

Wufei paused, unsure.  "There's no way you have anything from there still.  I helped you unpack, remember?"

"Just keep telling yourself that," Duo chuckled.

"You're bluffing."

"Want to find out?"

Wufei hesitated.  "All right.  You win.  Just keep whatever you have away from me," he muttered.  "I'll go to work after I clean up the kitchen."

"I'll take care of it," Duo said.

"But…"

"I'm not helpless, Wu," Duo ground out in a tight voice.  "It won't kill me to do the dishes."  Wufei backed off immediately.

"You're right.  You're not helpless," he conceded.  "But you ARE heavy."

"I am not!  You weigh more than I do," Duo objected as he slid off of Wufei's lap.

"Fine.  Then your butt is bony.  I'll be lucky if I don't have your butt print in my leg for the rest of the day."

"And wouldn't that be fun to explain to Noin," Duo chuckled.

"Whatever you're thinking, don't you dare," Wufei growled.

"Fine," Duo conceded, pouting.  He stretched and started toward the kitchen.  "Call in before Zechs has a coronary and go to work."

Wufei shook his head silently as he headed out, already on the phone with the platinum blond who, sure enough, was about to throw a fit.  He ignored the man's irritation at his refusal to give a reason for being late.  His mind was fixed firmly on how quickly Duo had progressed in the last few days.  Less than a week ago, the braided man couldn't even be in the same room as him without squirming.  Now, he seemed almost like his old self.  Wufei almost expected him to start pulling pranks again.  He briefly wondered who would catch the brunt of it at the Christmas party.  That thought caused him to chuckle into the phone.

Zechs paused in his tirade, the sudden silence causing Wufei to pay attention to him again.  He briefly wondered if he had missed something important.

"What?" he asked.

"I was just speculating on what happened to make you so cheerful," Zechs said, the irritation gone from his voice.  "I'm not sure I want to know."

"Very well, I won't tell then.  But, could you relay a message for me?" Wufei asked.

"Okay…"

"Tell Noin that it's tournament certified."

"Now I'm _certain_ I don't want to know," Zechs muttered.

"Trust me.  It's safer that way."

To Be Continued…  
Okay.  I give.  I don't know how long this is going to continue as a story.  I'm working on it, though.

I'm sorry.  I know it's short, but this is all I had time for at the moment.  Class is evil and the doctors are trying to kill me and eat my brains.


	7. Part 7

Afterimages

Part 7

By Mieren

Wufei returned from work to an amazing sight.  Duo was standing in the living room, radio blaring, amid shifted furniture.  Seemingly oblivious to the Chinese pilot's presence, he began to navigate his way through the room at a brisk pace.  Twice, he came close to walking into a piece of furniture only to sidestep it at the last possible moment.

Still ignoring his friend in the doorway, Duo continued wandering around the room, leaving his raven-haired companion to watch him in confusion, wondering if he had lost his mind.  Out of nowhere, Shini ran towards the braided teen, purring loudly as she launched herself into the air.  Balanced carefully on his toes, Duo pivoted in time to snag the miniature cat midair, his searching fingers only bumping the feline's forelegs gently as he caught her.  Immediately, Duo placed the cat on her preferred perch on his shoulder.  Spinning, she launched herself forward, meowing loudly just beyond the peak of her jump.  In response, Duo lunged forward, catching her gently in mid-fall.

Setting the cat gently on the floor, Duo moved unerringly towards the radio, flicking it off as he angled his head to turn his clear violet eyes on Wufei.

"Hi, Wu!" Duo greeted enthusiastically.  Wufei just stared, confused and slightly fearing the mental state of his companion.

"Duo… what…"

Duo grinned unabashedly at him, seemingly amused at his discomfort.

"Thought that I should be able to move around at the party, ya know?" Duo laughed, bouncing forward to embrace the stunned Chinese teen.  He continued, sensing the shock radiating from the other boy.  "I've finally learned to sense where large objects are, even with loud noises around so I don't run into them anymore.  And I trained Shini to run around and make noise at varying volumes.  I'm beginning to be able to catch her…"

Duo trailed off, looking uncertain.  Wufei didn't give him a chance to falter further.

"Did you do all of this simply because I asked you to sing?" Wufei asked softly, purposefully returning the embrace.  At the jerky nod against his shoulder, he plowed on.  "Why didn't you say anything?  I could have helped."

"I didn't know if I could manage it," Duo admitted softly, turning his head away and lowering his eyes.  "I didn't want to disappoint you.  Get your hopes up…"

Wufei's heart nearly seized at the gesture.  If he hadn't known better, he would never have guessed that Duo was blind.  He gripped the slender man tighter.

"Please," Wufei pleaded softly.  "Tell me how to help.  I don't know what to do." 

Duo raised his head mere inches from where it had been pillowed on the Chinese pilot's shoulder.  A few soft breaths sounded in Wufei's ear before the braided pilot was able to relay his request.  Wufei balked for a moment before agreeing to the odd request.  He sank to the sofa with the uncertain braided teen in his arms, resolving to do as requested once his companion had calmed down.

After several hours, the American finally dozed off.  Carefully shifting the taller boy's weight to the couch, Wufei reached for the phone, carefully dialing in a few calls.

*     *     *

Duo squirmed almost continuously, fingers endlessly fiddling with his hair or clothes.  For at least the tenth time, Wufei reached across his car to still his friend's fidgeting hands and got a sheepish smile in return.

"Relax," Wufei soothed.  "Everyone will be happy to see you again.  Besides, you won't be up on stage forever.  We secured two other victims to sing so you could go out and mingle."  Duo nodded slightly.

"Who else?"

"The scrawny little German guy from accounting, Kurt… Wagner, I think.  He's about our age, if I remember correctly.  You know, the guy that walks a bit strangely, like his legs aren't jointed right.  The other one is the strange guy that insists on working the graveyard shift, Shido.  Says he has an allergy to sunlight."

"The nightwalker himself?  Isn't he the lavender haired guy that's doing the nasty with his secretary?" Duo asked, face mischievous.

"That's him," Wufei confirmed.  "And we can't confirm that bit of rumor, despite the number of hickies she constantly has.  We just let him stay on because he's so good at figuring out the clues on some of the odder cases that stump most of the department."

Duo nodded absently, fazing out again.  Wufei sighed and wondered if he should keep pushing Duo to be cheerful or just let him fret.  He decided to go with both, reaching out to hold Duo's hand, offering comfort and understanding while not pressuring him to speak.

Caught up in holding the braided teen's hand, Wufei was shocked when he realized they had arrived at the Preventers Headquarters.  He shook his head ruefully at his absentmindedness.

Helping Duo out of the vehicle, Wufei placed his friend's hand on his shoulder, not knowing if the blind pilot would be comfortable with displays of public affection yet.  Duo followed him complacently, his head swiveling occasionally towards sounds.

"Relax," Wufei said.  "You're not even the first one to sing.  At the moment, I believe they have Mr. Wagner up on stage."

"I'm almost afraid to hear him singing with his accent as heavy as it is," Duo chuckled.  "I'm up after him, aren't I?"

"Correct," Wufei chuckled.  "Just remember what we talked about.  No Valby."

"Fine, fine," Duo consented, grinning.  "No Valby."

"Good boy.  I'll give you a cookie later."

Duo snorted, slipping his free hand into his pocket and pulling out something he had snuck with him into his palm.  Trying to remain inconspicuous, Duo slipped behind Wufei to stand on his other side, placing his hand on the Chinese pilot's shoulder.  Sensing a confused look directed at him, he shrugged.

"Arm cramp," he lied, keeping his expression innocent.

"Ah."

Duo bit the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.  He knew for a fact that most of Wufei's wardrobe was white and the button down shirt he was wearing was probably no exception.  In his palm, the braided pilot had a large mass of fur he had brushed out of Shini's coat.  Sliding his hand across and down Wufei's back, he settled his arm around his companion's waist, hugging him, leaving a streak of black fur across the other's back.  Wufei made a surprised noise in his throat, but didn't object.  Later, he would rant when he knew what Duo had done.

In a final act of mayhem, Duo balled his fist around the remaining fur, coating his fingers with the silky stuff.  He dropped his hand and firmly squeezed Wufei's butt cheek, leaving a hand-shaped spotting of fur on what he suspected were beige slacks.

"Lets go greet the crowds," Duo crowed before the Chinese pilot could more than gasp in shock.

Laughing, Duo bounced ahead, navigating easily into the building and to the main auditorium where the party was taking place.  Wufei watched in shock as the blind young man successfully navigated around all of the other guests without running into anyone or anything.  He paused a few times to exchange a quick word with some of the other employees, often assurances that he was okay.  Quatre spotted and cornered him almost immediately.  Wufei hurriedly joined them.

"Duo!  I'm so glad you made it!  I've missed you.  I heard you were singing tonight.  Is that true?" Quatre said all in one breath, sounding like he had consumed entirely too much caffeine.

Duo blinked in shock at the onslaught and then grinned, adopting a Southern Bell accent.

"Quatre!  It is just lovely to talk to you again," Duo said, raising one hand to touch his fingertips to his collarbone and holding the other out delicately towards the blond.  Still grinning mischievously, he embraced Quatre lightly and kissed him on each cheek before pulling back and giving in to the urge to laugh.  Quatre shook his head and chuckled.

"Wufei, I believe you need to take the sugar out of his diet," he said ruefully, glancing at the Chinese pilot.

Wufei bit down on his tongue.  Hard.  Apparently, Duo was wearing lipstick and due to his antics, so was Quatre, though the blond didn't know it yet.  He glanced at the grinning brunette, still unable to see the makeup.  Somehow, he had found a tone the exact shade of his lips and while it didn't show up on him at all, it appeared almost fluorescent on the blonde's pale skin.  Wufei leaned over to whisper in Duo's ear.

"I don't know where you got that, but you better not get any on me," he warned.

"Quatre, Wu, excuse me for a minute," Duo said.  "There's something I have to do before I'm dragged onto stage in a few minutes."

"Okay," Quatre agreed, sounding confused.

Winking at them, Duo turned and began hunting, knowing where his target would be waiting for him.  Slipping just out of the auditorium and towards one of the nearby offices, he tried to calm down before he got there.  He concentrated on the music, hearing Kurt doing his rendition of More Human Than Human by White Zombie.  He wasn't slaughtering it quite as badly as Duo thought he would.  For some reason, though, it seemed strange that he was singing that particular song.

Shrugging, he entered the small office that belonged to some violent, sword-wielding, redheaded psycho named Aya.  He was careful not to touch anything.  It was quite possible that the weirdo had booby-trapped his office.  He sensed someone was already in there.

"Hello, Trowa," he greeted.

"Hello," Trowa returned in a subdued voice.  "Duo, I'm sorry…"

"Quiet," Duo ordered, sighing.  He could sense the European pilot staring at his blank eyes and it bothered him.  "I don't want to hear apologies.  Logically, I know it wasn't your fault.  I'll speak to Quatre after I get off the stage.  I'm due up there in a few minutes."

"You're going to be singing?" Trowa asked incredulously, his mind already overloaded from Duo's unspoken forgiveness.  He shook his head, moving back to important matters.  "I know you don't want me to say it Duo, but I am sorry.  If there's anything I can do…"

"Actually," Duo interrupted, smirking.  "There is."

To Be Continued…

Sorry about the long delay.  Lot of things happening that would bore you to death if I listed them all.  For now, I'm just trying to get things all updated, even if it's not much.  Sorry this section is short.  The next should be longer.  R&R!!!

Oh, on subject of new things going on, there is ONE thing that might interest you.  I recently got a new kitten.  She's off-white with a gray tail and yellow/gray ears.  Named her Ryoko.  Cute little thing, even if she is insane.  Odd thing is that I just got her recently and she acts EXACTLY like Shini!  Right down to the shoulder riding, head sitting and ear sucking!  It's just creepy!

Yes, Kurt Wagner is based on the series X-Men Evolution.  Shido is from Nightwalker.  Aya is from Weiss Kreuz (or Knight Hunters as the dubs are called).


	8. Part 8

Afterimages

Part 8

By Mieren

Duo sauntered up to the stage, still in shock that Kurt had dared to sing 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland' with his thick German accent.  It had come out 'Valking in a Vinter Vonderland.'  Wincing slightly to himself, he walked over to where he believed the microphone to be, having to sweep his arm once to find it's exact location.  He didn't bother to introduce himself or give the crowd any warning of what was coming.  Whispering to the band behind him what to play, he launched right into his version of the song the German man had just sung.

"Lacy things, the wife is missing.  Didn't ask for her permission.  I'm wearing her clothes, her silk pantyhose.  Walking round in women's underwear."  By this time, the room had become dead silent.  Duo could sense countless sets of eyes staring at him in shock.  Smirking, he continued with the song.  "In the store, there's a teddy, with little straps like spaghetti.  It holds me so tight, like handcuffs at night.  Walking round in women's underwear."

By the time he had finished the spoof, he could almost feel the heat from Wufei's blush.  At the final notes, a deafening cheer arose from the Preventers at the party.  Technically the Chinese man couldn't say anything about his choice of songs.  He had never said not to sing any parodies.  More accurately, he had only said not to sing anything by Valby, Wufei thinking it far to perverted to even exist, much less sing at a party.  Smirking, he launched into his second song of his block singing.  He knew he would probably end up on stage again later in the night, but that didn't bother him in the slightest.  He knew a lot of weird songs.  His second selection was techno, and strange even by his standards.  The band had to quickly download his choice and play it for the first time from hurriedly printed pages.

"Rioja, Rioja, Reverend Al Green, deep blue morocco.  The water on stone, the water on concrete, the water on sand, the water on fire.  Smoke, the wind, the salt, the bride boat coming.  Dave in the water.  Old man Einstein on top of his house.  White deep blue…"

The lyrics continued in that vein for some time, making absolutely no sense in the slightest.  Despite the oddity of the song, he received another round of whistles and cheers.  For another dozen songs, he chose oddities that no one sane would have ever heard of, let alone listened to.

"We sail tonight to Singapore.  We're all as mad as hatters here…"

His hour was almost up.  By this time, he chose to assume he had given Trowa enough time to comply with his request.  After telling the band his final choice, he received a round of chuckles from the musicians.  They suspected he was up to something.  Grinning, he turned back to his audience to begin his song, the words beginning long before the music, reflecting that the band was right to be suspicious.  The introduction was fast paced and only lasted a few seconds before the music kicked in.  Duo couldn't help grinning like a madman as he entered the refrain for the first time, knowing what would happen when he did.

"Oh yes they call him the streak.  Fastest thing on two feet.  He's just as proud as he can be, of his anatomy.  He gonna give us a peek.  Oh yes they call him the streak.  He likes to show off his physique.  If there's an audience to be found, he'll be streakin' it round, inviting public critique."

That's when Duo heard the first set of gasps and shrieks.  He was hard pressed not to mess up his lines as he plowed through the song.  Several of the musicians missed a note or two behind him, distracted by the scene in the crowd.

As per Duo's request, at the first line of the refrain, Trowa charged into the room, wearing nothing more than his shoes.  Following instructions, he made a beeline for Une, circling her twice before dashing through the Preventers once more, looking for his next target.  Une's roar of "Barton!" was lost in the laughter and cacophony of catcalls.  Seeing Zechs, Trowa charged at a full sprint, briefly placing his hands on the blonde's shoulders as he hopped over him leapfrog style.  Marquise snorted his drink out his nose and sputtered indignantly when he saw the younger man's butt cheeks in front of him awarding him a full view of something he never wanted to see.

"Oh yes they call him the streak.  He likes to turn the other cheek.  He's always making the news, wearing just his tennis shoes.  Yes you could call him unique."

Only half understanding the joke, Trowa circled Noin a few times, depositing a note in her hands that read only 'It was tournament certified' and had no following explanation.  Even though Trowa didn't understand it, Noin apparently did, seeing as to how the shriek of "Barton!" followed him as he made his exit.  The cry may have been for the streaking alone, but considering the hostility in which it was said, he suspected that there was more to it.

While Duo continued on with the song, Trowa managed to find Wufei and Quatre, circling the two at a rapid pace, very aware that his face was crimson.  At the nasal sputtering, he suspected that Wufei had suffered another nosebleed, but didn't slow down to verify the fact.  He had completed the list of people to torment and was headed for the exit that lead to his clothes.  It was blocked.  Several Preventers, far too amused with the situation, had cut off his escape route.  Doubling back, Trowa ran for the nearest exit, only to find it blocked similarly.  After making a dash for every possible way out, finding each summarily obstructed, the European pilot went for the one route that could not be thwarted by the partygoers.  The vents.  Scurrying up a wall, in the process flashing all his goods to the entire crowd, he popped off the cover to a vent and disappeared from the party.  A mixture of applause and raucous laughter followed his escape.

Duo finished off the song just as Trowa's pale butt disappeared from view.  The applause was deafening and lasted for several minutes.  After basking in the cheers, he relinquished the stage to Shido Tatsuhiko.  The lavender-haired detective started immediately into a series of love songs, a vast change from the chaos Duo had been wreaking.

It took a few tries at navigating the crowds, but Duo eventually located where Wufei and Quatre were by their voices.  They were speaking in low tones not meant to carry.  Duo picked them up a little ways into their conversation.  It was clear that they hadn't noticed his approach.

"I only called him because Duo insisted!" Wufei said firmly.

"Why would he do that?" Quatre asked, sounding frustrated.  "Duo couldn't have been in his right mind when he asked you to call him.  If it weren't for Trowa…"

"Then it would have happened a week later than it did," Duo interrupted.  The previously arguing pilots went silent, at a loss for words.  Duo casually stepped up and slung one hand across Quatre's shoulders.  "Come with me.  I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Okay," the blond said reluctantly, allowing himself to be dragged.  For loss of a better private location, they ended up in Aya's office again, narrowly avoiding hearing Shido begin another love song as he openly flirted with everything female in the audience.  Duo released his near chokehold on his companion and leaned against the nearest wall.  He began speaking before the Arabian could gather his wits.

"First and foremost, it's not Trowa's fault," Duo said bluntly.  He raised one hand to silence the forthcoming protests.  "I've acted like a delinquent so often in the past that he assumed I was either pulling a prank or doing something decidedly illegal.  Again.  He didn't know."

"But you said that you were begging…"

"I was," Duo admitted, starting to sound strained.  "But he didn't know what it was about, only that Heero was involved.  He didn't know I was hurt."

"That's no reason for…"

Duo cut him off again.  "He told me to buzz off because I asked to stay there.  I'm sure you remember the last time I stayed over.  He was trying to protect you."

Quatre was silent as he contemplated the situation.  The last time Duo had stayed with them was the only time he had ever been allowed in their house.  After that, he had not returned.  Though he had known, or at least suspected, during the war that Quatre and Trowa were together, he had never had any concrete proof.  During a vacation at one of Quatre's estates, he had accidentally walked in on the two of them together.  He left the room very quickly.  The next day, being the joker he was, he made a few jokes at their expense.  He had never intended to upset Quatre so badly.  Seeing his lover upset, Trowa had thrown Duo out, barely refraining from doing so physically.

After thinking on the subject for a few minutes, the Arabian tentatively asked a question.

"You aren't upset by us being together?"

Duo snorted.  "Go hide in the corner," he said, pointing towards the back of Aya's office.  "Make sure you can't be seen.  I'll be back in a minute.  Stay hidden."

When he heard the blond doing what he said, confusion pouring from his very being so strongly that Duo could clearly sense it, the American slipped out the door and back to the party.  Wufei was almost exactly where he had been before, talking quietly with some colleague that Duo couldn't place right off.  He butted into the conversation softly.

"Sorry, man.  I have to steal Wufei for a moment," Duo said, snagging the Chinese man's shoulder and tugging gently.

"Sure thing, Duo.  I'll find him later," the mystery voice said as they left.  The tone was so cocky and arrogant that Duo finally recognized him, grinning and waving back.

"Later, Yusuke," he called over his shoulder.

"What is this about?" Wufei asked, tensing up in preparation for a fight.

"You'll see when we get where we're going," Duo said, grinning.  Sensing his good mood, Wufei allowed himself to relax.  He immediately stiffened again when the American made to pull him into Aya's office.

"I wouldn't recommend going in there," he said tersely.

"It's okay," Duo said offhandedly.  "I've been in here a couple of times tonight.  If there were any booby traps, Trowa already disabled them."

"I guess," Wufei said dubiously.  "Now why are we here?"

Duo only closed the door with a quiet snick.  Grinning, he pushed Wufei against the nearest.  Pulling the Chinese pilot's chin up while he was too startled to respond, he lowered his own mouth to the shorter man's.  He kept the kiss gentle at first, waiting a few seconds before swiping his tongue along Wufei's lower lip.  Duo heard him suck in a breath as he broke the kiss.

"What is it?" Duo asked.

"Aya," he panted.  "The man has cameras in his office."

"Lets give him a thrill then."

"I don't think that… mmph."

Whatever else he had to say was lost in Duo's mouth.  The brunette happily plundered his mouth with his tongue so thoroughly that Wufei was jealous of whoever had taught him to kiss like that.  He decided to worry about it later, focusing on the American's wandering hands, which were playing near his lower back and threatening to go lower.  Feeling bold, Wufei lowered his own hands to grab Duo's ass and pull him forward, pressing their groins together.  Duo chuckled into his mouth.

"I said to give him a thrill, not a heart attack," he said wryly.

"Are you kidding?" Wufei said, slightly out of breath.  "We couldn't freak him out easily.  He's with Wagner."

"Seriously?  Man, there has to be something in the water here," Duo murmured.  He cocked his head slightly.  "Sounds like said playboy just started a song with Shido.  White Christmas.  Perfect.  Why does Wagner keep choosing songs with W in them?"

"We should probably get back out there," Wufei said regretfully, ignoring the taller man's commentary.  He had no idea what had come over Duo, but he definitely wasn't objecting.

"Actually, could you go out and send Trowa this way for me?"

"Sure," Wufei said slowly.  "But if you got any lipstick on me, I'll get you later."

"Thanks."  Duo waited until he heard the door close behind his boyfriend before speaking again.  "You can close your mouth now, Quatre."

Quatre snapped his teeth shut, unaware that he had be staring at the two of them slack-jawed.  He grasped for the first thing that his shocked mind could handle at that moment.

"Lipstick?" he asked.  Aquamarine eyes narrowed as he raised one hand suspiciously to his cheek, drawing his fingers through the pink marks the American had left there earlier in the evening.  He couldn't help it.  He chuckled.  "Well.  That explains a lot."  His voice toned down a bit.  "You and Wufei?  When did that happen?"

"About a week ago, actually," Duo admitted.  "Anyways, time for you to get ready to make nice.  Trowa's here."

Quatre glanced at the door, frowning.  "But…"

"No buts.  You are going to make nice if I have to slip you both aphrodisiacs and lock you in the closet," Duo growled.  Quatre snorted.

"I was going to ask you how you could tell," the Arabian said.

"Oh," Duo said, grinning sheepishly.  "I can hear him.  He's just outside."

Hearing the conversation and knowing he had been caught, Trowa slipped into the room, staring at the floor.

"Duo, I…"

"No talking!" Duo interrupted.  "Now.  Horizontal Hokey Pokey.  That's an order.  If Aya doesn't have a seizure, I'm coming after both of you with fuzzy handcuffs and a whip.  Understood?"

Not waiting for a response, Duo exited the room and made his way towards the stage to temporarily take over for the length of one song.  As a deliberate reminder to a certain couple, he sang the Hokey Pokey.  In a previously private office, Trowa and Quatre laughed.

To Be Continued…

Close to finished!  One more part may or may not have it.  R&R!

Notes for this part.  The cameos are indeed Kurt Wagner from X-Men Evolution, Aya from Weiss Kruez, Shido from Nightwalker, and Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho.

The songs are 'Walking Round in Women's Underwear' by Twisted Christmas, 'Pearl's Girl' by Underworld, 'Singapore' by Tom Waits, and naturally 'The Streak' by Ray Stevens.

R&R!


	9. Part 9

Afterimages

Part 9

By Mieren

Hoping that his rendition of the Hokey Pokey had reached the proper ears, Duo hopped off the front of the stage, leaving a grinning Kurt in his wake.

"Fellow Preventers," Wagner called upon his exit.  "Thank Duo for sparing you from my singing for the last few minutes."  He paused to allow a smattering of cheers.  "Now, you may blame him for getting me in this particular mindset."  Grinning at the audience, silently pleased at their worried looks, he produced an accordion out of thin air and launched directly into the Chicken Dance.

Weaving between laughing and dancing Preventers, Duo made his way to where Wufei had spent most of the night, predictably finding the Chinese pilot waiting for him.

"I trust Winner enjoyed the show," Wufei drawled before Duo had the chance to open his mouth.  The American had the grace to blush.

"You knew he was there?"

"Maxwell, even if I hadn't seen him leave with you before you returned alone, did you really think that I wouldn't notice someone else in the room?" Wufei asked wryly.

"You're not mad?" Duo asked hopefully.

"Of course I'm mad," Wufei said flatly.  Duo wilted slightly.  "And as punishment, tonight you will receive a spanking."  Duo couldn't help it, he laughed.

"And how is that supposed to encourage me to behave?"

"Who said it was?" Wufei countered.

"You know," Duo mulled.  "Quatre and Trowa are probably scarring Aya for life even as we speak."

"That would be your fault," Wufei said dryly.  "So what exactly is your point?"

"I believe that Kurt has a camera in his office too."

Laughing softly, Wufei escorted Duo to the German man's office.  Little did they know that the following day, Aya and Kurt compared surveillance tapes.  The four pilots never did figure out who sent them the fruit baskets a week later.

*     *     *

Duo barely managed to make it back to the stage for his final singing block of the night.  Wufei met Quatre and Trowa in the audience, all the men looking rumpled but content.

Much to everyone's surprise, Duo suddenly began mimicking Shido's singing style, going through nothing but love songs.  Even strange to them, none of the songs were in English, sticking solely with Chinese, Arabian and Latin.  The three listening Gundam pilots were the only ones to understand, though Zechs, Noin and Une seemed to get the gist of it judging by their smirks.  Duo had just started a fast paced song in Chinese when Zechs called out to him.

"Sing something in English!" he yelled, amused.  Without missing a beat, Duo slipped between languages from one line to the next seamlessly.  Noin chuckled.

"You can't win," she said quietly to Zechs.

"Oh yeah," he whispered back challengingly.  "Lets see you do it in German!"

Waving in the blonde's direction, Duo hopped languages again, this time in the middle of a phrase.  Quiet laughter circulated the room at Zechs's expense, along with a few appreciative murmurs.  Noin was one of the latter.

"Zechs," she hissed demandingly.  "Listen to him!"

"What?" Zechs asked dumbly, trying to tune into the song at her demand.  Ice blue eyes widened slightly.  "He speaks German."

"He speaks German," Noin repeated flatly.  "And since he translated it from the original song, I'd bet he speaks Chinese too.  I don't think he just memorized the translations."

"Are you implying that he speaks Arabic and Latin too?" Zechs asked incredulously.

"Possibly," Noin mulled quietly before speaking up.  "Spanish!"  Again, Duo shifted immediately to accommodate her request.  Now, curious murmurs circulated the room like wildfire.

"Portuguese!" someone in the back of the room called.  Duo complied.  Everyone followed the example.

"Russian!"

"Italian!"

"Vietnamese!"

"Swahili!"

Only on the last request did Duo stutter, glaring evilly in the direction of the speaker and throwing the bird before changing over to Swahili.  Zechs gaped.

"How many languages does he speak?" he asked no one in particular, his voice slightly higher than normal in his shock.

"We're up to eleven," Wufei said to his right, making both Zechs and Noin jump.

"Did you know he could do that?" Zechs asked accusingly.  Wufei shook his head.

"No, but it would explain so much," the Chinese pilot mused.  "I always wondered why he was smirking so much after hearing some of our transmissions."

"In retrospect, we should have at least known that he spoke German," Noin said, amused.

"How so?" Wufei asked at the same instant Zechs muttered, "Zwitter."  Wufei arched a brow in question.

"He hacked into Oz security," Noin explained as Duo started a new song, this one in French.  "He changed the personal information on Zechs so that his gender read as 'zwitter' permanently."

"Zwitter?" Wufei repeated.

"It's German," Zechs sighed.  Noin elaborated when he refused to explain.

"It means 'hermaphrodite.'  He set it up as a virus so it would keep changing back whenever we tried to fix it.  Took us almost a month to correct what he had done."

"A week after he originally did it, he sent Noin a condolence gift that explained that I wasn't good enough for her through actions alone," Zechs muttered.

Wufei arched one eyebrow but didn't dare ask them to elaborate.  Since they were both blushing slightly, he assumed it was something fairly imaginative and extremely perverted.

"So why is it such a big deal that Duo knows twelve languages?" Wufei asked as he tallied up the list.  The American switched from French to Japanese and he sighed.  "Thirteen."

"We've been looking for a translator," Zechs explained, shaking his head wearily.  "I never even considered asking him how many languages he spoke."

"Our current best only knows five," Noin sighed.  "Two of those only brokenly."

"It wastes a lot of time for them to translate amongst themselves and they usually lose a lot in the process," Zechs said.

"Is that Laotian?" Noin interrupted incredulously, snapping her eyes back to the stage.

"I think so," Quatre answered, joining the group.

"Fourteen," Trowa intoned.  They had been keeping count too.  The Arabian held up one hand to forestall questions.

"Greek!" Quatre bellowed, turning to Trowa for confirmation.

"Fifteen," the European answered a moment later.

"How many languages do _you_ speak?" Zechs asked suspiciously.  Trowa only smiled enigmatically.

"Enough," he answered, his expression giving away nothing.  Zechs sighed.  A German song started up.

"When Duo comes down from there, I'm going to ask him," Zechs said.

"Ask me what?" Duo asked, directly behind the platinum blond.  The older man nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Don't do that!" Zechs snapped.  He paused, finally processing that a song was still resonating through the room in German.  "Wait a minute…"

"Kurt's back up there," Duo answered before the blond could finish his question.  "You know.  The little German dude.  Now what did you want to ask me?"

Zechs tried to glare at the braided man, but found that he couldn't.  Now that he was over his shock, he had to admit that it was rather amusing.  Noin was straining to refrain from snickering and couldn't answer the American.

"They want you to work as a translator for the Preventers," Quatre supplied.

Duo paused, unsure.  He had been sure that he would be useless to the organization after losing his eyesight.  Being presented with the sudden opportunity to return to work left him a little stunned.

"Okay," Duo said, his voice a little shaky.

"You have to translate correctly if you take the job," Wufei said dryly.

"What makes you think I wouldn't?" Duo asked, still a little disoriented.

"Maxwell, I know what you wrote in that essay you submitted with your application to join Oz as your proof that you spoke Spanish," Wufei said drolly, more to cheer Duo up than anything.

"There was nothing wrong with that essay," Duo said in his defense.

"I was the one that eventually figured it out, you know," Noin said, eyes crinkling a bit with amusement.  "You're lucky that no one figured out what you were up to while you were still there."

"What did it say?" Zechs sighed.

"It wasn't so much what it said as what it did," Noin said.  "Hidden in the subtext of the electronic submission were at least four computer viruses."

"Six," Duo corrected.  Noin rolled her eyes.

"Wait a minute," Zechs muttered.  "Was that the week when the sprinkler systems would go off somewhere in the building every time someone on base flushed a toilet?"

"That was you?" Quatre demanded, mock glaring at Duo, not really upset.  Despite the collateral damage, it had been rather funny, the Maguanacs going positively berserk trying to figure out what was going on.  Wufei snorted.

"Who else would it have been?" the Chinese pilot asked.  Seeing the confused expressions on Zechs's and Noin's faces, he explained.  "Duo did the same thing to one of Quatre's mansions."

Zechs couldn't help but chuckle.  "You know, Treize nearly went insane trying to reset the systems.  I noticed that his quarters were hit at least a quarter of the time, as were mine if I remember correctly," he said.

Noticing that the music had died out again, Wufei glanced around.  "It would seem that the party is pretty much over.  Not many people left.  We should probably get going."

After that, they unanimously broke up and started for their vehicles.  Winking one eye in Wufei's direction, Duo trotted after Quatre and Trowa, easily following the sound of their footsteps.  Sighing in defeat, Wufei followed his companion as he caught up with the other two Gundam pilots beside the blonde's Jaguar.

"What is it, Duo?" Quatre asked.

"We forgot to do something," the American said.

"What would that be?" Trowa prodded.

"We all have to celebrate my new job!" Duo said triumphantly.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Wufei asked, a little suspicious at just how bouncy and amused the braided man was suddenly acting.

"Well, there is a camera in Zechs's office," Duo answered slyly.

Wufei gaped.  Quatre and Trowa exchanged startled looks before glancing at the Chinese and American pilots.  Trowa startled them all by snorting first in mild amusement, drawing his blond companion into his mind frame with a shameless look in his emerald eyes.  Wufei was the last to give in, nodding his head minimally.  The four pilots disappeared back into the building.

The following day, Zechs nearly suffered a heart attack.  When he recovered, and eventually wrestled the security tape away from Noin, who was intent on keeping it for her own personal collection, he removed the camera from his office for good.

OWARI

Finished!  Finally finished!  I had way too many stories going on right now.  What do you think?  I had to have a happy ending.  And for those of you who say Duo doesn't know that many languages, bite me!  I had to have something for him to do.  Besides, I'm all in favor of the braided loony being a genius.  No idiot can act that insane.  It's a fine line between genius and insanity.  ^_^  R&R!


End file.
